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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ^ 



e i M»a»a;ei:;!<»;a!Myi<asagga(icaggqa 



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A33. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Ci}2u n^rOi of J U'cde 



Smue of a (i'Us Teeih, frojn 



CcraeTeedi of 3 MonOis 




'Mate 




T/fi y4(j( of tJif Hcu^se, 

Ih^a-mirud 7n- the Tc<th. 



A TREATISE 

ON THE 

Being a true delineation, with instructions how to tell his age, from 

a foal to the period of sixteen years ; 

TAKEN FROM ACTUAL DISSECTIONS, 

AT THE 
YBTERINART COLLEGE OF LONDON : 

ALSO, 



AN ESSAY, 



ON FOUNDER, CONTRACTION AND RUNNING THRUSH ; 

Showing how thousands of horses in the United States, are annually destroyed by 
these three diseases, before they have arrived at one third the natural period of 
life. 

ALSO, 

THE CAUSES, BEST MODE OF TREATMENT, AND CURE BT THE USE OF THE 
HOT AND COLD BATH, INTRODUCED INTO THIS COUNTBT ON A NEW 
PRI;NCIPI.E BT THE AUTHOR. 



P<1^^ 



J Br JAMES CARVER, 

Veterinary surgeon, professor of animal medicines, and corresponding member of 
the London Veterinary Medical Society. 



PIIILADELPHM : 

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY UTTELL 8c HENRY, 

NO, 74, SOUTH SECOND STREET. 
MBRBITT, PRINTED, 

"TsisT" 



PREFACE 



THE Utility of a knowledge of the veterina- 
ry art, is manifested by daily experience ; and, 
although so many treatises have been M^ritten on 
the ages of horses, that any person would ima- 
gine any more to be superfluous, I am sorry 
to say, that very few, if ani/ of them, have 
proved by actual experiment what they have 
asserted. 

Every treatise, which has fallen into my hands 
for live and thirty years past, has boldly as- 
serted that a colt is foaled without teeth, but 
whether this error has originated for want of 
further investigation at birth, or for want of a 
knowledge of anatomy^ is now to be proved from 
facts too incontrovertible to be doubted ; tbe 
ages as here delineated in this treatise being taken 
from actual dissection at the veterinary college 
of London, under the eye of professor Coleman. 



When I had entered on my professional studies 
at the veterinary college of London, although my 
experience in India and other parts of the world 
had been very great, there were still some pheno- 
mena respecting the age of horses, which ap- 
peared to me extremely doubtful, which induced 
me to consult my worthy preceptor, professor 
Coleman, the best way to go about removing 
them. On the following day, after having made 
this request, he invited me to walk with him into 
the dissecting room, where he made to me the 
following observation, **I will now sir, answer 
the request you made me, respecting the doubts 
you entertained respecting the age of horses ; 
you possess no doubt a great deal of ex- 
j>erience, but here, in this room, is the school of 
investigation and truth ; where by industry, labour 
and research, every doubt may be removed ; may 
success attend them." Profiting therefore, by this 
hint, I sedulously went to work, and the following 
plates are true delineations of the age of a horse, 
taken from actual dissection at the veterinary 
college. 

Whether these obstacles which might have 
been overcome, by a proper investigation, have 
slackened the courage of those persons entrust- 



ed with the care and preservation of horses, or 
whether a crowd of self-opiniated men, whom we 
meet with ahuost every where, have been the 
cause of this error, it is certain, that it has not 
even to this day obtained a proper confidence. 

Many people in this country think that the 
knowledge of the horse, is neither susceptible of 
any particular study, nor capable of further im- 
provement ; in consequence, they are continually 
asserting that experience alone is sufficient, 

I allow, that experience is of great service ; but 
I am sorry to say, that among those who boast 
the most of it, we often meet with no more than 
the name. A man may indeed see and own a great 
number of horses, without being the wiser for it ; 
because, w^hoever perceives nothing but what the 
difference of colour discovers to his sight, will 
never make any other than frivolous observations ; 
and as the knowledge of many unconnected 
facts^ is difficult to be acquired, even under the 
direction of the ablest practitioners, it ought 
therefore to create no surprise, to see in the prac- 
tice of every day, the destruction of thousands, by 
men assuming the title and knowledge of vete^ 
rinary surgeons* 

A 2 



Before the veterinary art had assumed the form 
of a science, the practice of farriery, was too often 
attempted where theory was entirely unknown. 

Whenever this happens, that branch of busi- 
ness may be considered nearly in the same state 
of perfection, that surgery had attained, when 
barbers were the general practitioners. At that 
time, considerable practice was joined to an al- 
most total ignorance of the construction of limbs. 
The same may be applied to the art of farriery. 
Practice alone can never ensure perfection. But, 
to use a celebrated author's expression, *' The 
knowledge of it is vulgarly thought so familiar 
and so common, that you can hardly meet with a 
man who does not flatter himself that he has suc- 
ceeded ; whereas, every science is founded upon 
principles, consequently theory must be indispen- 
sably necessary. A blind and boundless presum- 
tion is the characteristic of ignorance ; the fruits 
of long study and application, amount to a disco- 
very of innumerable and fresh difficulties, at the 
sight of which, a diligent man, very far from over- 
rating his own merit, redoubles his efforts, in pur- 
suit of further knowledge." 



As in respect to the ages ef hor'ses, nothing is 
more frequent than to see, even judges (as they 
call themselves) take horses of thirteen or fourteen 
years of age, for six or seven years old ; these 
errors show how highly conducive it would be to 
the public good, for every gentleman to have es- 
tablished rules on this important branch of vete- 
rinary science. 

In this treatise, I know that I shall differ greatly 
in opinion from various respectable and good 
judges of horses : but whenever I do so, I beg 
to inform the reader, that I have no other motive 
than a wish to render the art more perfect, which 
I am attempting to describe and illustrate. 

And if the principles recommended in it be 
deemed any way likely to be useful (as I hope they 
will, if candidly examined and judiciously practi- 
sed) it will not fail of receiving the support and 
approbation of the public. 

J. C. Y. S. 



VETERINARY OBSERVATIONS 

Olf THE 

AGE OF HORSES. 

THE teeth of a eolt, as well as every other part of 
the animal, take their origin in the uterus, which cir- 
cumstance may be ascertained on dissecting the 
jaws of a foetus, about the time it is foaled, or a few 
days after, at that time we find the molares or grinders; 
those in front, termed gatherers or nippers ; and the 
four tusks perfectly formed, but having a glutinous 
consistence only. 

The gatherers or nippers, are of the number of 
twelve, and are those which make their appearance 
first to the eye ; we find immediately under them, 
the same number, that succeed the colt's teeth, which 
are through when the colt is about two years and a 
half or three years old. 

THE AGE OF HORSES 

May be judged by several particulars, such as the 
length or shortness of the tusks ; the deepness of the 
eye-pit, the gi»ay horse turning white, and the black 
gray, particularly on their head. 



9 



"Some people have carried their ridiculous opinions 
so far, as to advance, that there was a new joint grow- 
ing out of the horses tail every year, by which they 
were able to judge with certainty, of their age, if 
he lived many years ; but as all those remarks are 
totally destitute of sound practice, I shall not take 
the trouble of making any observations on the subject^ 
bat reject them as entirely erroneous, as I shall show 
hereafter. By experience founded on thirty years of 
theory and pi*actice, I am persuaded, that the chief 
characters to judge correctly of the age of horses, are 
taken upon their teeth, excepting when they are very 
old, about thirteen or fourteen, at which period, the 
tusk loses its groove, and the eye pits become hol- 
low, the hair white, particularly at the head, 
and the teeth very long and yellow. But before I 
attend to those things, I must first observe that hor- 
ses have forty teeth, but the mares being generally 
without tusks, their number is but thirty-six. Some 
mares, however, in every country, but more particu- 
larly in India, have the same number ; that is, the 
mares have tusks as well as the horses, in which case 
they are reckoned admirably good, and even superior 
to geldings for general use. 

But to give a general idea of the teeth which serve 
to ascertain the age, I shall divide them into three 
olases, viz; 



10 

THE FIRST 

Are those situated in the lateral and posterior part 
of the mouth; they are called molares or grinders: 
their use is to grind and chew the aliment; but they 
have no particular marks which announce a young ot \ 
old horse, except by their number. 

THE SECOJVD CLASS 

Are situated a little above the barr, or that part of 
the mouth which receives the bit of the bridle ; they 
are four in number, one above, and one below on each 
side of the jaw, and are known by the name of canini, 
or tusks in the common way. 

THE THIRD CLASS 
Of the teeth, are placed at the anterior or fore part 
of the mouth; they are twelve in number, six to each 
jaw; they are intended for the purpose of cutting 
grass or herbage : and for drawing hay from the 
rack, preparatory to mastication — which process con- 
stitutes the first preparation for digestion ; and their 
second use is, for forming a characteristic sign of the 
age of a horse. 



Most authors who have written on the age of the 
horse, have asserted that he is foaled without teeth, 
hut this is incorrect 9 he is foaled with twelve teeth, called 
grinders, three on each side of the superior, and three 
on each side of the inferior maxillary jaw, and a few 
days after he puts out four more, which are placed 



li 

in the front of the mouth,* they are called pincers ; 
soon after, that is in ten or twelve days, four other 
teetJi make their appearance next to the pincers, and 
take the name of separators,! on account of their be- 
ing situated between the pincers and the corners ; and 
about three or four months after the four corneri^ 
push forth ; after which, the twelve colts teeth in 
front, continue without any alteration, until the young 
animal arrives at the age of two years and a half or 
three years old ,• which circumstance renders it very 
difficult to avoid being imposed upon, during the time, 
if the seller, for instance, finds it liis interest, to 
make the colt appear older or younger than he really 
is; in which case, every deception in the old countries 
is employed, as I shall show hereafter. 

About two years and a half, or three years old, a 
colt begins to shed or change his teeth ; those called 
the pincers which secondly make their appearance, 
are the first which fall out ; so that when tlie animal 
gets three years or three and a half years old, he has 
four horses, and eight colts teeth, which are easily 
distinguished, the former being larger, flatter, and of 
a yellower colour than the others, and streaked from 
the end quite down into the gum ; further these four 
horses teeth or pincers, have a cavity with a black 
spot in the middle of it; whereas the four colts 
teeth are round and white. When the horse comes to 

♦ See plate the first, f See plate the second, i See plate the third. 



IS 

four, or four years and a half old, he loses liis four 
separators or middle teeth, and in the room of them 
he puts out four others, which follow the same rule 
as the former ones, called pincers.* 

The last milk grinder likewise does the same, and 
soon after, and very often before this period, the tusks 
make their appearance. From this time he is no lon- 
ger called a colt, but a horse ; and if it is a female, 
on the falling of the corner ni[*pcrs, she drops the 
name of filly, and assumes the name of mare. It is 
necessary to remark here, that it is at this period of 
time a horse is supposed to become useful, arriving 
at his strength, and being capable of enduring some 
fatigue ; and as until this period, he is in most coun- 
tries except this, objected to for the purposes of utili- 
ty, so it has become a matter of study with dealers in 
the old countries possessing colts, to make them ap- 
pear older than they really are by the practice of 
bishoping, of which I shall treat more fully hereafter. 

At five or five and a half years old, in a natural 
state, the internal wall of the corner nippers is on a 
level with the rest, and the tusks are completely 
come out, which now present a pointed body curved 
inwards, with the outer surface round and smooth, but 
the inner surface curved and grooved, which groove 
continues in the tusk until the period of about tliir- 

* See plate fourth- 



13 

Icen or fourteen years, and wlien this is entirely obli- 
terated, and tlie inner concave surface of this tooth 
becomes perfectly smooth and rounding, yon may 
with confidence call him sixteen years old. This as- 
sertion is made with much confidence, being founded 
on the practice and experience of thirty years in 
horses in all parts of the globe. 

The same rule which we have observed in the 
growth of the teeth of young eolts, takes place in their 
alterations, and their form, so that wlien a horse ar- 
rives at six or six and a half years old, the cavity of the 
lower pincers will fill «p, and the black spots will 
entirely disappear ;* but whether or not, when the 
cavities are filled up, the black spots are of no further 
service to tell the age by. 

Between seven and seven and a half years old, the 
two middle ones, called separators, on account of 
their situation betwixt the pincers and the corners on 
the side of them, fill up in the same manner ,-t and 
about eight, and eight and a half, the two corners on 

Note. — I believe I am the first person who can confirm the idea 
of the possibility of telling- the ag-e of a horse until fourteen or six- 
teen years old; a fact, which is as common among* the natives of the 
East as for an Eng-lish jockey to tell the age of a colt. And it was 
during my residence in the upper provinces of Bengal, that I learnt 
from the natives of that country this mode of judging" of the age of 
a horse by his upper teeth until that period. 

• See plate fifth, f See plate sixth. 
B 



14 

After which, the upper one begins and follows the 
same order, that is to say, the two pincers begin at 
die side to do tlie same :* so the under jaw terminates 
its process* 

* See plate Seventli. 

The Lite professor Monsieur St. Bell, of the veterinary college 
of London, was the first who introduced into Englanu this mode of 
judg-hig- the age of liorses by the upper teeth, after the efTacement of 
Hie mark, bean or black spot^ by which we are guided in the under 
jaw, and which he says, he learnt in the riding houses in France, 
and which was first introduced there by the cavalry ofTicers who 
brought it from India. 

THE MOLE WHICH 

The Bhramins of tlie East taught iDe was, that at two, and two 
and a half years old, two years elapsed between the disappearance 
of each of the next pairs ; that is, as the front upper nippers were 
fouiKl filled up, the two next were filled up at ten, and that the two 
upper corners lose their mark when the animal was twelve years old. 

But though the cavity of the teeth do disappear something- like 
the above, they do not always do it, with sufficient regu'arity, un- 
less, as the Bhramins informed me, the horse is from his birth, kept 
jn the same province and on the same provinder,and in the same 
climi;te wliere he was f )lded. Tliat is, supposing a colt bred in 
Persia, or in the upper provinces of Oandahar, Moultnn,or any of 
the upper provinces of the Mogul Empire, and brought from thence 
say when a colt of four years old, into tJie lower provinces of Ben- 
gal, the climate, pnvinder, and the general treatment of his mouth 
from bitting,* and various other causes, would operate materially, 
so as not to alwaj's be a true criterion to go by. Cut if the horse is 

* The Persians invariably use nothing but the snaffle, but in the lower part of the 
provinces of Bengal the curb is invaiiably used. The provinder is also difterent. 



15 

fill up about nine ol» nine and a half years old ; at ten 
and ten and a half, sometimes eleven years of a2;e, the 
two seperators fill up; and lastly, at twche or tv/elve 
and a half years, the two corners are entirely filled up 
and the black spots disappear. At ten years, there- 
fore in a great number of instances, the two inter- 
mediate upper nippers will be found filled up ; they 
become very blunt and begin to loose theu* internal 
cavity, and the fleshy ridges of the roof of the mouth 
becomes leaner. At twelve, when tlie disappearance 
of the upper roof is regular, those in the corner are 
effaced, and tusks very often a rounded ftwffoH, tlic 
fleshy ridges are still less evident, and the nippers 
now begin to push forward in a horizontal direction* 
When a horse lives to be fifteen or sixteen, his inci- 
sive teeth become nearly triangular, and are still more 

always kept in the same province, state, or dii.trict, where he wns 
folded, this mode of judging- seldom produces error: and this obser- 
vation I have myself, from the inspection of many thousand horses, 
during a residence of near fifteen years in that country, found to be 
correct 

I also made the same observation on upwards of seven thousand 
Arabs imported from the Red Sea, and different parts of Arabia, for 
the honourable East India Company, which passed my inspection, 
during the last three years of m.)'' residence in that country. It may 
not be inapplicable to t!ie subject, to make a similar remark respect- 
ing this country, by the introduction of a Canadiun colt, in the 6i^m& 
"Way, into the southern state of Virginia, or vise versa. As respects 
the difference between horses bred in the warm climates of India, 
and those bred in England, invariably found two years difference in 
alteration of the effacement of the mark, between the uppa- and- 
lower jaw. That is, when I should pronoiuice » horse sixteen years- 



16 

horizontal, the upper corner frequently beeomeis sawed 
as it were in two parts. Tliey now are yellow, and 
sometimes black, and frequently the grinders are so 
irregular, as to make it necessary to have them rasp- 
ed, from the inability of the animal to grind and mas- 
ticate his corn : the eyes likewise become sunk, and 
the pits over them deep, and very mucli so, if it is the 
colt of a very old stallion. 

As the animal advances in age, all these appear- 
ances very much strengthen. The nippers flatten at 
the side, separate from each other, and become scored 
and often furrows on their surface ; gray hairs often 
appear over the eyes, the anus projects, while the cel- 
lular membrane surrounding it becomes obscured ; 
the lip$ become thin and i^endent, the lower one being 
often paralytic. But after the mark is out of the 
mouth, as it is termed, horses yet appear vigourous, 
having much of their natural spirit remaining : and 
when a dealer becomes possessed of such a one he be- 
comes an object worthy his attention, to give him a 
more youthful appearance. The principal part of 
which art consists in the 

old in India, I should pronounce a horse Jn this country or England 
only in his fourteenth year, this therefore makes a difference of two 
years. But whether this difference will hold good, as respects the 
country and the climate of Canada and Vii'ginia remains for fui'they 
investigation. 



OPEEATIOJS^ CALLED BlSHOFIJS^a. 

But as it is my duty to promulgate trutli, and not 
eri'or, I shall not go to the trouble to describe it, 
because, the description of tlie operation may have a 
tendency in a work like this, to promote its introduc- 
tion sooner than it would otherwise become a prac- 
tice. I believe it very seldom or ever practiced in this 
country. But in the old countries it is a very com- 
mon practice among grooms and jockies. 

The judgment gained by the teeth is sometimes 
liable to error, as some horses wliolly living on 
grain, and early worked, must necessarily wear then^ 
more than others, feeding principally on succulent 
matter in crib biters, and tliose that champ much the 
bit this variation may be very considerable, and make 
not less than two years difference between them and 
others ; nevcrtlieless, as in the majority of instances, 
certain and definite so as it is universally attended to^ 
and certainly useful ; yet a too strict attention to it, 
leads those who are only moderate judges into very 
great error, by causing them to reject the most 
useful and valuable horses, without these marks 
as being supposed passed his work. Nothing is more 
fallacious than this ; the common received marks of 
the age as promulgated by the common sayings of 
every groom ami jockey, in pronouncing a horse at eight 
«r ten years of age, grant a criterion of not a third 

K b2 



ts 

©f the natural life of the animal, and not one hjjif or 
the time in which he is useful, and fully capable of 
answ ering all the purposes for which this noble animal 
was intended ; and I truly regret, that it is so inueh 
the custom in this country, where these generous ani- 
mals are so very early put to labour, and so unremit- 
tingly forced to pursue it, that this mark is so mucliT 
alluded to^ 



OSTEOLOGY, 

Giving a description of the teeth, and mode of judging 
of the age of the horsebox sheep, 

THE teeth are the hardest and eompaetest hones of 
the hody, and are situated in the cavities between 
the tables of the jaw bonea, which are called alveoli : 
they are usually forty in number in the horse, and 
as I have before observed, in the mare thirty-six, the 
latter commonly wanting the tusks. They are divi- 
ded into incisors, cuspidati and uiolares,* as they ar© 
called by farriers and horsemen, separators or nip* 
pers, tusks, and grinders. Each tooth is formed of 
a crown of a neck, and root. The crown is the uppeB 
l^art, eompossd of a shining compact portion called 

♦ There is now and then seen a small tooth near the first molarc, 
which farriers call wolfs leelh, but wliich, by anatomical research, 
are evidently a species of bicuspides. Fan-iers and dealers in horse£> 
who are ignorant of the anat omicui structure, have introduced into 
this country the abominable practice of extracting this tooth, under 
the idea of curing the inflammation of the eye. The practice 
is too absurd, to give any credit to it. It is therefore hoped* 
that every rationa man who will give himself one moments reflec« 
tion, will never resort to so barbarous a practice. The cuttiiig and 
raising of the frog from the ground to keep the foot in health ; the 
cutting of the hair callecl the hooks and extracting, the wolfs 
tooth, under the idea of curing the infl.imrnation of the eye ; and 
the absurd operation of burning for ihe lampas, for a disease that 

BQfver eidsted i can by no means be reconciled to common sens^ 



so 

enamel, and one less so, of the natui»e of (^ommoa 
bone : the neck is not very evident in the adult horse, 
but is more plane in the colt. The roots are received 
into the alveoli ; and are not spread out into distinct 
fangs, as in the human subject, but are more case like. 

Most quadrupeds having during life two sets of 
teeth, a temporaneous, or milk set, and a permanent, 
or adult set. The first usually appear at, or sooa 
after birth, as may he seen in plate the first, and the 
other about the adult perio<l. This change, by which 
the milk are displaced for the permanent set, is very 
gradnally performed, some years elapsing between the 
appearance of the first and the last, by whicli means 
the animal suffers no inconvenience; where they, how- 
ever, all, or several of them, to remove at the same 
time, the animal would probably starve. 

It is a curious fact, proved by various dissection* 
at the veterinary college, that though the two sets of 
teeth appear, with an interval of sofne years between 
them, yet that the rudiments of both are found nearly 
at the same period ; at least we know, that as soon as 
the temporaneous set are evident, the traces of the 
others can be distinguished immediately under them> 
and are only prevented from making their appearance 
apparently by the pressure occasioned by the first : 
thus when one of the first set is drawn, its place i» 
foon filled up by one of the second set, and this ap^ 



pears tlie reason of their early formation, that they 
may always be ready to fill up any accidental dis- 
placement, that may occur before that period. Was 
this not the case, another could not afterwards appear ; 
for nature who makes nothing in vain, nor keeps a 
useless part, as soon as a tooth becomes displaced, if 
another is not immediately springing up, the absorbents 
remove the alveoli, or socket in which it was placed, le- 
velling it smooth, that it may not by its sharp edges 
wound the gums. Dealers generally know this early ap- 
pearance of the second set when the others are remov- 
ed, which they frequently practice to make young 
horses appear older than they are. Providence saw 
it was essentially necessary that there should be twa 
sets of teeth, for as they grow but slowly in propor- 
tion to the jaws, so, had there been but one set, the 
disproportion in the growth between the jaws and the 
teeth must have separated, and made them wide apart 
as the jaws increased ; hence there is given at first a 
small and less numerous set, adapted to the jaws; but as 
the rudiments of the secondare larger and more nume- 
rous, though early formed, so they take up more 
room, and are actually at this early period situated 
in the branches of the posterior jaw, so that these 
necessarily evolve only as the jaw lengthens out. 

The mode of removal of the first is a matter 
©f great curiosity likewise, and is occasioned by an 
absorption of the fangs or roots of the toothy whereby 



it falls out, having no support ; this absorption of 
the fangs or roots of the tooth is brought 
about by the stimulous of pressure, wliich wt 
know on the true principles of physiology excite* 
these vessels most powerfully ; this presure is occa- 
sioned by the tooth underneath, as this second tooth 
becomes evolved and hardened, so as to be more hard 
than the roots of the tooth above, and as by its evolu- 
tion and growth, it presses on these roots and becomei 
absorbed, but while it is not perfectly hardened, and 
does not reach to press the temporaneous roots, they 
remain secure, and these teeth do their offi<je ; and as 
this evolution is the permanent set, and are different^ 
in the different individual teeth, so the removal of 
the temporaneous is stimulated at different periods^ 
hy which the animal is not inconvenienced as he must 
be if the removal of the whole took place at once. 

The living powers in the teeth are kept up as ia 
bones in general, by nerves and blood vessels, which,, 
on dissection may be traced entering the hollows ia 
the roots. It is evident, that the vessels must be con- 
siderable, from the great Ijcemorrahages that some- 
times follow from the extractions of the human teethe 
The nerves enter by means of the anterior and pos- 
terior maxillary canals as we have described.* Nor 

•' Some of the nervous branches furnishing the human teeth, are 
passing- under the ear above tlie tubrosity of the jaw ; and It is by 
dividmg or burning- the ntrve,at this part (a dangerous practice) 
*hat itinerant practitioners pretend to cure tke tooth ache, which 



S3 

have we any reason to doubt that they have ahsor- 
hcHt ; but, on the contrary, we see that their growth 
is increased until the adult period, and the roots of 
the temporaneous removed ; and hence there is every 
reason to suppose their earth is absorbed and re-dc^ 
posited as in other cases, for we find in the human 
when a tooth is drawn, the next can branch out so as 
nearly to fill up the space, so careful is nature in sup- 
plying waste. The sensibility in teeth is well enough 
known among ourselves from the disagreeable eftect 
of acids, and certain sounds setting them, as we term 
it, on the edgo, and the latter must arise from the 
peculiar connc'xion between some of the auditory 
branches of thefiftli pairof nerves probably; but many 
oftJiese phenomena are wholly without our reach. 
The effect of sand or other gritty matter, between 
the teeth, likewise demonstrates their sensibility fully, 
wliicli is also evinced by their feeling under inflamma- 
tion so much longer. The teetb of qnadrupeds are not 
so liable to diseased decay as the htiman^ yet now and 

an the under jaw sometimes succeeds. And we have cases related, 
wheH the filing- of the teeth (so strong is the connexion with the sen* 
llment principle) has occasioned convulsions ; and a child, whose 
gums were ianced, for tlie purpose of permitting- the freer egress 
of the tooth, has just shivered and died. Upon the principal of 
a?ialogy of feeling, how great and severe must be the pain of re- 
sorting to that nbominablc practice, among tlie i;;noranl practition- 
ers of extracting the wolf's teeth. All most all horses have wi.lPs 
teeth in uil parts of the world, but i c.n cunfidently assert that I 
Qever knew an instance wliere they did harm. 



S4< 

then it doe§ so happen, and a horse is found with ap- 
pearance of pain, and a dislike to the act of eating. 

The rudiments of tlie teeth may he detected very 
early in the emhryo, in the form of mucus, involved in 
a membrane ; bony matter is gradually thrown out 
in this, and the mucus then becomes absorbed. The 
enamel is a particular deposit, not following altogether 
the nature of bone, and is placed differently in differ- 
ent animals. In the human, and carnivorous brutes, it 
is placed exteriorly as a covering to the teeth, giving 
them firmness. In gramnivorous animals, on the con- 
trary, it is placed in perpendicular plates, within the 
body of the teeth ; where, by its great hardness, is al- 
ways keeping up ridges and a rough grinding sur- 
face : for. as there is by this means alternately a per- 
pendicular layer of common bone, and plate of enamel, 
so as the bony part is wearing more readily than 
this, there is always a number of inequalities remain- 
ing on the surface of the grinder, admirably adapting 
them for the purpose intended, and by this firmation 
remaining perfect to the last of the animal existence.* 

• We may from hence learn, that the enamel is not for the pur- 
pose principally of preser\'ing the teeth dentists constantly insist 
on ; perhaps any particular preservative quality in it, is one of the 
least of its uses, or the teeth would seldom be free from decay. In 
the horse it is evident there are parts entirely deprived. If, as at 
the depressions on the broad surfaces of the grinders, as on the sur- 
face of the worn incisive or nippers, yet, from observation neither of 
th€8e become cwioui. In our own front teeth it is the same, wear- 



25 

The teeth are tlie only bones without the hivestiire 
of periosteum, being in their own crown ami neck 
uncovered, but their roots are surrounded by the pro- 
per membrane of the gums. 

THE LVCISIVE TEETH 

Are SIX in number to each jaw, whicli In ohier 
books of farriery, before tliis art had assumed the 
form of a science by the establisliment of the London 
veterinary college, were called the nippers ; the next 
gatherers, or separators ; and the outer, corner teeth; 
but it w ould be better to say, the first, second, or 
third incisives, beginning at the corner. Tliese tcetli 
are curved, which is favourable for the pressure tliey 
undergo ; the upper being more so than the lower ; 

ing from an edge to a flat surface by age, but never decaying in 
this part ; when they do, it begins at the neck, where the enamel 
exists ; and the first carious spot that is seen in a grinder, is usually 
in the deep depression in the middle, where, the enamel can suffer 
no abrasion ; add to which, that decay in a tootli may generally be 
stopped, if the whole of the decayed portion is filed away. Now, it 
is a well known fact to the people of this country, that some tribes 
of Indians always keep their teelh filed to a point, yet seldom is a 
decayed tooth seen among them, at the most advanced period. 
The real and principal use of this substance, is by its hardness to 
give firmness to the teeth, and perhaps it has a similar use with 
he cuticle or outer skin, to defend the inner substance of the troth 
from external applications, thereby blunting their sensibility, which 
incariousor abraded teeth is very great. 

C 



S6 

they have two surfaces, an inner and outer, the inner 
is rounded, but the outer has a groove up the middle. 
Their upper surface presents a hollow, which as it 
wears away in some degree at certain periods, is re- 
garded by some as a criterion of age, and in fact, 
forms the best mode of judging of the number of 
years tlie animal has lived, but is a very uncertain 
one as to his real value. The incisive teeth differ 
from each other as respects appearance ; the cor- 
ner ones are nearly triangular ; these have likewise 
a species of artificial side, or internal wall, which is 
on a level with the rest for sometime after it appears. 

THE CUSriDATES, C^iJVIJVJE OR TUSKS, 

Are, as I before observed, usually wanting in mares, 
and are four in number, one on each side of the lower 
and upper jaw, on what is called the barr, and in the 
space between the incisive and molares. Those of the 
anterior jaw are especially nearer the nippers than 
the posterior. 

There are but one set of these, which appear at 
the adult period of four or four and a half years old 
(and in warmer climates considerably sooner) grow- 
ing slowly, and when com|ileteiy evolved, presenting a 
curved appearance, turned inwards, with an outer 
plane surface, and an inner one that has two perpendi- 
cular groovei with an intermediate rising, the end is 



S7 

pointing, which by age wears away, with the in- 
ternal gvooves, leaving the lusk blunted, and the 
internal surface equal with the outer ; this therefore 
may be a guide, when a horse is suspected to have 
been bishoped, 

THE MOLARES OR GRIXDERS 

Are twelve to each jaw (and are the teetli that are 
born with the coU,) The upper are larger and stronger 
than the under, as they form the fixed point 
upon which mastication is performed ; their upper 
surface presents nearly a long square, the first not so 
complete as the rest, being nearly ti'iangular in many 
instances ; this surface is very uneven from the alter- 
nation of the enamel and bony portions ; and has the 
anterior teeth hung over the posterior, so the ridges 
of the one set are received into the depressions of the 
other, by this means permitting the mouth to shut 
completely in a state of rest. 

These teeth of horses sometimes become ca- 
rious, but this is seldom ; at times there is like- 
wise there situated before the first molare a small 
hicueplSf called wolf's tooth, which from the irre- 
gularity of its growth, has by grooms and joekies 
been thought to do harm in injuring the eye ; nothing 
but a want of anatomical knowledge could have pro- 
duced the introduction of so gross an error, it having 



28 

no connexion with the eye, and in fine sliould never 
be noticed.^ 

The grinders sometimes wear away, so as to 
prevent mastication, when tin's is the case, the 
point should be filed smooth, by the veterinarian ; 
but the breaking them away Mith a hammer and 
cMssel, as performed by the common smJth, or the ex- 
traction of teeth in this way, is not only a very danger- 
ous but a brutal practice; for from the great strength 
with which they are implanted in the alveoli, the jaw 
js always more or less fractured in these cases; for it 
should be remembered, that the roots though equal in 
number to the human fangs, are yet formed into one 
cone-like body, which renders the extraction of them 
\erj difncult. 

We have already observed, that in dissecting a foe- 
tus, we find all the teeth perfectly formed, and that 
they are extremely soft, having a jelly-like consist- 
ence only, resembling little bladders. Every one of 
these little bladders, if I may be allowed the expres- 

* The blacksmiths of this city, many of whom have assumed a 
krio-ivledgeoi' this branch ofscience^ universally persuade and often 
prevail on people to extract this tooth, under the idea of curing- 
inflammation of the eye ; but this cruel, barbarous and shameful 
practice should be strongly reprobated by men of sense. I have 
repeatedly been applied to perform this operation, but I never 
have yet committed so gross an error in practice. 



29 

sion, are intended to form as many teeth ; for whicli 
purpose nature has provided them with a considera- 
hie numher of blood vessels, &c. The hardness of the 
teeth increases gradually, accordini^ to the age of the 
fcetus ; probably on account of the natural disposltioii 
of the fluid to incasterate, which properly it is pos- 
sessed of. 

The mucus fluid which surrounds each tooth, ac- 
quires also the same degree of consistence, and con- 
tributes to the formation of the white or enamel of the 
teeth, in the same manner that the blood distribu- 
ted to the skin, produces hair, and to the foot, horn, 

As to the black spots in the middle of each tooth, 
we can form no otbor opinion than that they are the re- 
sult of the extremity of the blood vessels, obliterated as 
soon as the air penetrates into their cavities ; which 
operation occasions their superfices to become dry and 
liard, and therefore rise to the formation of a black 
spot. 

From this arises the difference between the teeth 

of a horse and the human subject, their origin beinu: 

the same in both ^ but those little cavities w hich exist 

also in the last, are entirely olditerated in the extt-r 

nal extremities of the teeth, in consequence of their 

flat and sharp figure : whilst in horses on the contrary, 

C 2 



30 

their front teeth are square, and quite open at their 
external extremities. 

If this fact be well ascertained, we may venture to 
say, that the black spots situated in the cavity of 
each tooth, are caused by the extremity of their 
blood being dried and hardened by the air; and 
if this operation has been performed too soon, or 
with too much violence, or if the fluids, wliich serve 
for the growth of the teeth, become too susceptible 
of dryness (which is supposed to be the most proba- 
ble opinion) in either case, the substance of the tooth 
will be too compact, the juices intended for its 
growth will find obstacles, and the last cause will 
keep the cavity open for life. This opinion is sup- 
ported by experience ; which proves that the teeth of 
horses, whose cavities remain open, are much harder 
than others that are not so. 

As to the black spots of the teeth, they will never 
wear off, if it happens that the mucus which surrounds 
the little bladderg or teeth above mentioned, acquires 
a degree of solidity sooner than the bladders them- 
selves ; the small vessels, which serve for the nourish- 
ment of the tooth, suffer too great pressure by the 
mucus humour, intended in its origin, for the forma- 
tion of the white or enamel of the teeth. This cause 
seconded by too great hardness of the tooth, will 



leave it in a morbid state, and the black spot will 
never wear off, though the cavities are filled up. 

"We may therefore pronounce with good authority, 
that this effect is produced by a premature and too 
hard pressure on the extremity of the blood vessels of 
the tooth. 

Mares and geldings are more subject to be defec- 
tive in the mark for their ages than stallions, because 
their fibres, as well as those of the females^ of every 
other animal, are weaker than the male. 

OXEJ^ A^^D SHEEP 

Have their ages observed by their horns, which arc 
more conveniently examined, and more certain in 
their appearances than their teeth. Oxen have a per- 
manent and temporaneous set of horns. Sheep have 
only the permanent set. 

In neat cattle the age is sufficiently indicated by 
the general appearance, till the third year, when the 
temporaneous fall, and are replaced by a permanent 
pair. These appear with a kind of button at the end ; 
and as each succeeding year's growth protrudes this 
notty extremity from the head, a circle or round ring is 
formed ; consequently in these animals, if three years 
are reckoned for the button at the extremity, and an 



3S 

additional year for every circle, we shall have the age 
of the beast ; though it is not unusual among the 
knowing graziers to scrape or rasp down thes& 
rings, to deceive the unwary. In those kine who 
have no horns, the general appearance are considered, 
with the whiteness and equality of the teeth, which in 
the old are uneven, yellow, and sometimes black. Neat 
cattle have incisive teeth, only in the posterior jaw ; 
nature deeming it necessary to have no anterior nip- 
pers in them, for they gather long grass principally, 
which they wrap into a turf with their tongues, and 
apply it to the under or posterior jaw, and cut it off 
with their under teeth ; they change their tempora- 
neous set earlier than the horse, and get a pair 
every year, till they are five years old ; thus having 
eight nippers at this time, when they are called full 
mouthed. 

Sheep have their age indicated by the horns and 
teeth. The horns in those who have them, are more 
usually examined ; these form the criterion, and a 
year must be counted for every one of the rings. 
Where they have no horns, the teeth do not change. 
Mr. Buffon, I think, says, they have in their third 
year, four broad teeth (they before begin their second 
dentition at twelve months) in the fourth year six, 
and in their fifth year eight of the same kind. But 
this does not appear correct ; for it is observed that 
at twelve months, or one shearing, a lamb puts out his 



83 

new front nippers, and every succeeding year, or 
shearing, he gains two more until he is four years 
old ; having then eight in his lower jaw 5 his upper 
jaw like that of the ox is without them. 

The age of goats may be determined in the same 
way ; and in the deer, it is told by an additional branch 
appearing in the palm, in the antlers or horns. 



^' 



ON CONTRACTION, 



FOUNDER AND RUNNING THRUSH ; 

THEIR CAUSES, BEST MODM OF TREATMENT AND CURE, 

The present professor of the veterinary college, very 
judiciously began his career by teaching the mode of 
preventing some of the most destructive diseases that 
occur to the horse, but more particularly contraction, 
which ends in the ruin and destruction of many thou- 
sands of horses, before even one half of their services 
have been required of them. If therefore, this evil 
can be remedied, which it may be, by the application 
of the patent bar shoe and cold bath, for a couple of 
hours every day, how many horses in the course of a 
few years may not be saved to government and their 
owners. This was at once showing his own ingenuity, 
and rendering himself eminently useful to the public. 
On my first arrival in this city, I lahoiiredr^ard to 
walk in the footsteps of my ivorthij preceptor, Intfor 
the want of proper support, from those who ought to 
have consulted their interests, it was through the com- 
bined villainy and artful chicanery of the smiths and 
coachmen of the city frustrated. Now, as prevention 
must be ever superior to cure, so must the means 
that prevent diseases of the feet, be more important 
than those that cure them } it was this that led pro- 



Plal€2. 



f'aUnt Bar Shot. 
Q C 




^ Cvntracted h^o/' s?unf. m/fi /7u- r,7Unt D.n- Slic 
s1u>iyirt^ ffu vandty from. B A> C. 




thf CUfis 



K^ 




35 

fessor Coleman to apply his attention to the physiology 
of the foot, and the art of shoeing. Let us now examine 
the causes of this destructive disease. The horse, of 
all other animals, contrihutes most to the pleasure and 
advantage of man ; hence as soon as h« arrives at 
maturity (and very often before that period) he 
is brought from a state of nature to a life of art, and 
thereby doomed to labour and fatigue, which of course 
subject him to a variety of diseases, from which in a 
natural state he would forever remain exempt. The 
diseases to which his fore feet are liable, in particu- 
I lar, deserve our attention, being more exposed to in- 
jury from a number of causes, than any other part of 
the body. 



An inquiry therefore, into the causes of these dis- 
eases will in some measure lead us to proper reme- 
dies ; or what is of much greater consequence, will 
point out the means by which many of them may he 
jivevented ; as diseases, and more especially those 
in the horny substances of the feet, are more easily 
prevented than cured. For it is not with horses, as 
with the human subject, where, if the life of a man 
J can be preserved, though a limb be lost, he may 
nevertheless, be a useful member of society ; but 
unless a horse be preserved sound and active in 
all his limbs, he is only fit for the meanest drudgery 
or becomes a burden to his owner. The greatest ne- 
glect, with respect to the management of horses feet. 



I 



36 

is not atiending to >\hat is most natural to them, 
whether in shoeing, stable management, or in the means 
most commonly used to preserve them cool, moist 
and sound ; for we find that horses in a state of nature, 
running at liberty, have always good sound hoofs, 
and are never troubled with diseases of the feet. 
Hence it is evident that besides faults in shoeing, 
there must be during their confinement in the stable 
some material mismatiagement. 

This assertion I shall now endeavour to prove, by 
making a few observations on the means commonly 
used by people to preserve them moist, sound and 
tough, by the use of greasy and oily applications. 

On the alsurd practice of stuffing, greasing and 
oiling horses hoofs. 

There are many things practised, with regard to 
the management of horses in general, which custom 
alone has established, and are now universally es- 
teemed so essentially necessary, that they are receiv- 
ed as undoubted maxims, and submitted to without 
any inquiry into the reason or propriety of them 
That a man who shall recommend a free cir- 
culation of air, the laying aside the use of cloth- 
ing, or for horses to stand without their litter during 
the day time, and all with the sole view of securing 



them agaimt disease, runs the hazard of being con- 
sidered as a Jit iiihahUcmt for St, Jjiike^s or Bethh- 
hem hospitaif than his having pretensions to the pos- 
session of his rational faculties. However, with re- 
spect to all greasy or oily applications, so often pre- 
scribed and recommended by authors who wrote be- 
fore the establishment of the veterinary college, I 
must be so singular as to dissent from this received 
maxim, and show, that all such filthy applications to 
the hoofs of horses, are rather pernicious than saluta- 
ry. It is to be observed, that when young horses are 
taken up from the fields, their hoofs are cooli sound 
and tough. These are found from experience to be 
good qualities ; but horses are no sooner introduced 
into the stable, than their hoofs are greased or oiled, 
sometimes every day ; and if they are kept much in 
the stable standing on dry litter, without getting tlu>ip 
hoofs even moistened, it of course makes them grow 
hard, dry, and brittle, and when they come to be shod, 
in driving the nails causes them to split oft* in chips* 
Now, if these same horses, with dry, hard, brittle 
hoofs were turned out to graze in the field (which in a 
city cannot always be done) their hoofs in lime would 
become, as they were originally in a state of nature, 
sound, tough and good, I would therefore ask all ad- 
vocates for greasing and oiling hoofs, what is the 
cause of this change ? It certainly cannot be said 
that the hoofs were greased while at grass ; It there- 
fore must proceed from the dew weif and inoisture o£ 



38 

Hie grass, of which water is the principal ingredient; 
from tlie same cause do we not also find that the 
hoofs are always in a better state at the end of the 
winter, than after the dry months of summer? We also 
know as a certain fact, of which we have daily 
pro€ifs, tijat when ail other means have failed, we 
turn horses out to grass to recover their decayed brit- 
tle hoofs. And we find also tliat the hind feet of horses 
fi»om standing in the moisture of their own dung, 
are always in better condition than the fore feet, 
which stand upon hot and dry litter. 

It is also very well known to physiologists, that the 
hoofs of horses are porous, and that insensible per- 
spiration is carried on tlirough those pores in the 
same manner, and according to the same laws of na- 
ture that take place in other parts of the body. Now, 
it is a fact very well known to almost eveiy one, tliat 
greasy and oily medicines applied to the skin of the 
human body prevent perspiration, which is always at- 
tended with some bad consequences : upon the same 
parity of reasoning, then, why will it not hold good, 
that greasy applications will shut and close up the 
pores of the hoof, by being absorbed into their sub- 
stance. Hence the natural moisture which should 
nourish the hoof is prevented from arriving at the sur- 
face, on ^hich account, it f)econies as if it were dead, 
consequently tlry, brittle and hard. 



39 

The original practice of greasing*, or oHin«c licrses 
hoofs, probably took lis rise from observing that grease 
or oil softens dead substances, such as boots, liarness, 
bridles, &e. But this does not apply to the hoofs of 
horses, there being a great diiference between dead 
and livijig parts of animals ; the latter having juices, 
&c. necessary' for their own nourishment and support, 
whiJe the former require such applications as wilt 
preserve them from decay. Hence it is we see that 
horses standing for any considerable time, upon hot, 
dry litter in the stables, having their hoofs greased 
or oiled, and kept dry, are subject to so many dis- 
eases of the feet ; whilst the hoofs of those horses 
that go to the cart and plough, though never greased, 
i\ ^re not only better in every respect, but are less 
subject to complaints which are always the at- 
tendants on obstructed perspiration. Another prac- 
tice amongst grooms equally pernicious, is the stuffing 
up horses hoofs with hot resinous and greasy mix- 
tures, under the notion of softening them. Various 
are the prescriptions recommended ibr this purpose, 
many of which are of a quite opposite nature, for the 
purpose intended. 

Thus, after hard riding on dry, flinty, hard roads, 
•when the feet cannot be otherwise than in a hot in- 
flammatory state, in order to cool and soften the hoofs, 
equal parts of turpentine, rosin, grease, ke, are 
melted together, and applied sometimes nearly boil- 
ing; hotj others apply grease and tar, poured 



40 

boiling hot on the soles, mixed with tow under the 
shoe, with si>linters of wood, &c. Let me now ask any 
man of sense, are these articles of an emollient cool- 
ing nature ? or are they not on the contrary, hot and 
irritating, calculated rather to increase than decrease 
the inflammation of the feet, and therehy render them 
brittle, dry and hard ; and by obstructing the natural 
perspiration, to produce many bad consequences ? 
There is also another great impropriety in gentlemen 
suffering their grooms to stuff the feet with rotten 
dung and stale urine. This, it is true, is moisture, but 
is it not moisture of the very worst kind, on account 
of the salts and volatile alkali contained in the mire? 
which in itself contributes much to hardening and 
drying the hoofs, in place of softening them, besides 
the otlier bad effects that arise to the frog, &c. from 
the rottenness of the dung. But without commenting 
further upon the various compositions and pompous 
prescriptions recommended by the smiths and grooms, 
I trust sufficient has been said to convince the judg- 
ment and good sense of every owner of a horse, never 
to despise for its simplicity, hot and cold water, it be- 
ing more cooling and moistening to horn than any 
other substance in the Materia Medica. 

The fact speaks for itself, by their acting in the 
very teeth of their own principles, when they apply it, 
with a view of nourishing and softening (as their 
phrase is) the horn of the foot. Now, the fact is, that 
oil has no power of softening horn in the smallest de- 



41 

gree, for every onekno^\s that it is the common prao- 
tiee of all comb makers, and other artificers wlio use 
that material in their husiiiess, to employ warm 
water, or the vapom^ of water, in order to produce the 
softening effect upon it ,* for it is also well known that 
all the coarser oils become converted into a kind of 
Tarnish when applied to the feet of the living horse, 
in the course of a few hours, in consequence of the 
steady evaporation of the thiuner parts of the oil, and 
its absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere. It is 
from this cause therel'ore, tliat the animal is precluded 
the advantage, which must evidently result from the 
cooling and refreshing effect of water, which may 
come in contact with his hoofs as he travels on the 
road, unless he were to remain with them immersed 
in the fluid, by which means his hoofs might occasion- 
ally become cooled, though not softened by its absorp- 
tion. It is also impossible that occasionally meeting 
with the fluid in this w ay on the road, can have the ef- 
fect of cooling his feet, while thus heated in a varnish- 
ed case, except during the momentary space of time, 
which is occupied in its trickling off* the hoof, as no 
portion of water can be arrested by the varnished 
surface. The effects therefore, of evaporation, wliieh 
are so surprisingly great, in the production of cold, 
must be nearly if not utterly precluded ; which makes 
it manifest, that in this way, and upon this principle, 
the use of oil must inevitably contribute to heat the 

foot. Now, if these facts be admitted (and I do noi see 

d2 



4:3 

how they can be denied) it will follow as a natural 
consequence, t. at the use of oil must he the means of 
rendering the hoof hotli liard and brittle, as well as 
hot; foe if the oil operating as a varnish, precludes 
the effectual application of water to tlie horny box, 
the only substance in nature, calculated to soften it, 
the fact is clear, and all wonder ceases, at the frequent 
occurrence of contraction and sand crack, which daily 
and hourly are to be met with throughout the country, 
to the injury and destruction of so many thousand 
animals. 

If therefore, the practice of oiling and greasing of 
herses hoofs were to be laid aside entirely in this coun- 
try, and the more rational mode of immersing the 
feet in a tub of water adopted, as it now is, throughout 
the British army, the different veterir.ary colleges 
throughout Europe, as well as most of the pri- 
vate and public stables in England, and the use 
of all kind of sto])pings that consist of grease> 
tar, turpentine, rosin and such like pernicious ma- 
terials, be utterly discarded, T repeat again how 
often a valuable horse might be saved ot his owner, 
and how many thousands to the country ; for it 
is a notorious fact that more than one half the 
horses in the United States, more particularly those 
used in the mails and cities, are nearly rendered unfit 
for service before they are ten or twelve years old. 



48 

If this mode of treating tlie feet were generally 
adopted, witli the principles of shoeing which I have 
so earnestly endeavoured to establish, we should sel- 
dom see running thrushes, which, though rarely the 
cause of lameness, are nevertheless, the concomitants 
of contracted heels and quarters ; and tliough no ap- 
plication to a thrush, can be of use, unless the frog 
get pressure upon the ground, without which, it can- 
not long remain healtliy. yet as people are anxious 
about some dressing, the oxymel of verdigris com- 
monly called mcl ^Egijptiacnm, may be applied on a 
piece of tow , and if a piece of cork as hereafter re- 
commended, dipped in tar, be placed upon this dress- 
ing, so much the better. This application not only re- 
moves the fetor of the thrush, but by its moderately 
stimulating quality, it induces that condition of 
the sensible frog, which is so favourable to the repro- 
duction of sound horn. Whereas tar, turpentine, and 
all greasy applications applied in the common way, 
though they may correct the fetor for a short time, 
will eventually exasperate the disease, by increasing 
the inflammation and encouraging the separative act ioa 
of the sensible frog ; by which means, the possibility 
of that organ resuming its original healthy action of 
forming new horn instead of matter, will be elFectual- 
\j^ precluded. It is highly necessary to remark here 
that the use of blue vitriol and such like violent as- 
tringents, as are so commonly used by every groom 
and coachman; through the city, which may stop for 



44* 

a wliile the running of the thrush, evidently does it 
so suddenly, as frequently to occasion diseases of the 
eyes, and very often canker of the whole foot, which 
eventually renders the poor animal entirely useless, 
without tlie owners ever knowing the causes. 

We shall now proceed to give a more general idea 
of the uses and function of this singular organ, which 
for years, even long after the establishment of the 
veterinary college, appears to have remained entirely 
unnoticed until Mr. Coleman introduced his patent 
frog for the cure of contraction and thrush; still every 
groom and jockey in the country will attempt to de- 
fine it in his v/ay, and tell you "that it is natural 
to all horses to drain off the bad humours." But 
whether salutary or beneficial, I will only under- 
take to say, that whenever thrushes do occur, they 
not only prove extremely trouI)lesome, hut from the 
tenderness and lameness which they occasion to feet 
affected with them, horses are often rendered unfit 
for service, both from the injudicious mode of shoeing, 
and from the treatment they receive on their re- 
turn to the stable. 

. But to explain this more particularly, there is in 
the middle of the frog a cleft or opening, by which 
the heels have in the natural state, a lateral degree 
of confracti(^n and expansion 9 especially when the 
horse treads his heels o» the ground ; hepce when 



45 

jieprived of this pressure, the sensible frog ceases to 
perform id proper function, and pain and inflammation 
are the consequence, producing that wasting and 
rottenness of its external covering which falling off 
in detached pieces, never, until restored to its proper 
and natural pressure, acquires its proper solidity ; 
hence that tenderness which ever after remains^ 
when any hard substance touches that part of the 
foot, and consequently subjects the horse to lameness, 
too frequently brought on by the slothful neglect and 
bad management of the groom. Fresh air and regu- 
lar exercise being as essentially necessary for the 
health and preservation of this organ as any other ; 
for running thrushes like other diseases to which 
pampered horses are too frequently subject, are sel- 
dom or ever known in those countries where horses 
range at large, neither are they so frequently to be 
met with in the country among labouring horses, 
whose exercise is regular, and whose hoofs are so 
frequently exposed to coolness, wet and moisture in 
comparison to those kept in public cities. 

With respect to the 

CURE OF ELW^YJJVG THRUSHES. 

Where it has been of long standing, it cannot be 
cured but by removing the first cause, which is to 
give the frog pressure, and when sound, keeping the 



48 

• 
feet cool and moist with simple plain water, and at 
the same time having recourse to internal remediesy 
by way of revulsion, suck as bleeding, purging, and 
duiretie medicines ; and ajypropriating such a degree of 
pressure to the frog, as its diseased temkrnesss will 
admit. In some cases, there is not only a discharge of 
foetid matter from the cleft of the frog, but often times, 
and at the very same time, a greasy discharge from 
the round protuberences of the heels, and hollow of 
the pastern joints. It is therefore necessary in such 
a case to make a distinction, for when of a soapy 
consistence, thick and clammy, it is either canker or 
grease, which renders another mode of treatment 
necessary ; and proper means, such as before advised, 
must be used to correct the habit of body ; and should 
it already have become so malignant in its disposi- 
tion as to tcrrainate in canker, and become very 
foetid, poultices of pulverised charcoal must be ap- 
plied, and the dressing to consist of the mildest es- 
eharotic powders, such as white and blue vitriol,, 
burnt alum of equal quantities mixed together with 
burnt charcoal made of horse radish, and sprinkled 
on the diseased part. In respect to the nature' of 
thrushes, there has been a difficulty attendant on 
their formation, which before the establishment of 
the veterinary college, created much perplexity from 
ihe views which were then entertained of that dis- 
ease : but from the indefatigable attention and re- 
searches of professor Coleman, we are happy in say- 



47 

kig that this disease as well as canker, grease, &e. 
is now perfect!}' under the command of the veteri- 
Bary surgeon. 

This important organ, which as before observed, 
had not been so much noticed, nor received any dis- 
tinct appellation, until Mr. B. Clark's writings made 
their appearance ; and in his elegant work on the 
foot of the living horse be has ventured to call it 
the frog stayer, or holt, which like an insuted tooth, 
more firmly holds the horn to the sensitive frog; 
for whilst the sensitive frog falls into the inverted 
arch of the horny frog, and is thus firmly held in its 
place, this part entering in the opposite direc- 
tion into the sensitive frog, serves reciprocally to 
confirm and fix those parts together and preserve 
them from external injury and dislocation. 

I hope that this discovery respecting the nature of 
thrushes, will not be unacceptable to those who are 
k) any way interested ahout horses, as it not only sets 
in a clearer light the mode of treatment and cure, 
when the horse is labouring under the complaint, but 
what is more to be estimated than either, shows how 
simply it may at all times, and at all seasons of the 
year, be so easily prevented and kept in health. Yet it 
is a curious and at the same time a?i iiicrcCible fact, 
that though almost every p'^rsoncon . ^'' sant with horses 
appears to know the value of wide heels, a sound broad 



48 

frog, and a cool state of the hoof, yet few can be 
made sensible of tlie necessity of adopting or even 
resorting to the means that ^\iil preserve the foot in 
this desirable condition. 

Now, the common practice adopted by most of the 
grooriis of this city of letting their horses stand 
through the day upon litter, must materially con- 
tribute to accelerate this contraction, which it is 
of so much importance to guard against ; for, if the 
litter be the least wet, it must become exceedingly 
hot, in consequence of the putrefactive fermentation 
engendered in it, which has now been so accurately 
ascertained, from various exp'^riments tried at 
the London and Dublin veterinary coileges, not 
only to be productive of contraction, but even glan- 
ders, inflammation of the lungs and eyes, and otlier 
diseases. It is therefore evident that next to bad 
shoeing, the use of the litter is evidently the grand 
excessing cause of rimning thrush, which is gene- 
rally connected with contraction of the heels and 
quarters. Now should any one be inclined to 
doubt, that the application of wet litter is capable 
of altering the condition of the frog and hoof, yet 
surely no one will hesitate to admit, as before ob- 
served, that wet litter, on account of its acrimony, 
must increase the thrush, as well as contraction; 
for which reason horses through the day sljould 
stand on the pavement or plank of the stable which 



49 

should be swept clean, and as tlie litter would 
by this means be the less fitted for the purpose of 
manure, on account of i(s being less imbued with ihe 
animals urine (the admixture of which with the straw, 
is of more importance to the farmer than that of the 
ffeees,) and stables in Europe are now constructed, 
so as to carry off the urine into a proper receptacle, 
by which means it can be appropriated to the pur- 
pose of any compost, instead of being permitted to 
mix itself with the litter, or run to waste- But be- 
sides contributing to the contraction of the feet, as 
well as to produce and expedite running thrush, tlie 
practice of letting horses stand through the day on 
litter, also lays them more open to the attack of 
that sudden infiammatioa of their feet, called 

FOUJS^DER, 

Which it must be observed, is to be distinguished 
from that chronic species of founder, that depends up- 
on gradual contraction of the heels and quai'ters, it is 
slow in its progress, and consequently so in the lame- 
ness attendant upon it. For the soft cushion which the 
litter affords to the feet, (independent of the affair of 
heat) must render tliem less capable of bearing vio- 
lent and sudden battering upon hard roads, during 
a long journey. 

And by way of illustrating this fact, it may not be 
iDiproper to remark, that it is no very uncommon cir- 



59 

eumstance, even for horses that have been some time 
at grass, during which time they have of course trod 
upon a cool, as well as elastic surface, to be at- 
tacked with founder, in all their four feet, after 
being suddenly rode a great distance on a hard road, 
especially during hot and dry weather. 

For the five hundred sensible lamin8e sur- 
rounding the anterior surface of the coffin bone^ 
and the five hundred horny laminee surrounding 
the posterior surface of the hoof, which are so 
intimately connected with each other, and which 
contribute so much to the support of the animal^ 
are scarcely ever stretched to their utmost ex- 
tent, while the horse is at grass, both on account 
of the gentle nature of his voluntary motion in the 
act of grazing, the springiness of the surface of 
upon which he treads. When, therefore, these elastic 
sensitive fibres within the hoof, are called upon under 
the circumstance before described, to perform sudden 
and violent action, the frequent reception of shocks, 
to which they have for so'jie time been unaccustomed, 
produces that high active inflammation, which running 
on to separation, frequently occasions the cast of the 
hoof, and not uncojnmonly ends in mortification of 
the part and the death of the animal. 

Having therefore entered so far on the subject of 
founder, I shall proceed to give its true definition, to- 
gether with its 



M 

Causes, best mode of treatment and cure, 

And that on principles never before defined or 
made public in this c ountry* 

THE TEEJl FOUJ\^J)EE, 

Is indeed frequently applied to lame horses, and 
that in a very vague manner, and without any deter- 
mined or fixed meaning ; for, when a horse shows 
any impediment in the motion of his fore legs, he 
is by most people pronounced to be foundered, 
whether he is really so or not ; that is according te 
what is termed or understood by the word founder^ 
for want of making a proper distinction between dif- 
ferent diseases of the feet ; and if we consult authorB 
who wrote on the subject, before the establishment of 
the veterinary college, we shall find their accounts 
Tery dark and imperfect, calculated more to bewil- 
der the imagination than convey any perfect idea of 
the disease ; and hence it is that so many errors are 
committed in practice to the ruin and destruction of 
so many fine horses in the public cities of the United 
States. 

When a horse is attacked with this disorder, he al- 
ways shows great restlessness, is hot and feverish. 
Leaves much at the flanks, breathes quick, has a 
strong quick pulse, and groans much when moved 



52 

about, at the same time shows threat symptoms of 
pain, sometimes in one, but more frequently in both 
fore feet ; for which reason he lies down much ; but 
when forced to move forwards he draws himself to- 
gether, as it were into a heap, by bringing forward his 
hind feet almost under his shoulders, in order to keep 
the weiglit of his body as much as possible from rest- 
ing on his fore feet. 

This disease has always been considered a most de- 
structive one, and what has rendered it more unfor- 
tunate, is, that farriers and others have always mis- 
taken it for an affection of either the loins or chest, 
and hence their applications being made to those parts, 
the disease has usually terminated in death or incura- 
ble lameness ; many of them have also thought that 
the grease or fat (as they call it) of the body was 
melted, and failing downwards produced lameness ; 
and no sooner is the horse attacked with this com- 
plaint, than ro wells and blisters are immediately 
applied to drain off the supposed humours, the shoes are 
also ordered to be made hollow, so that boiling grease, 
tar, turpentine, &c. are applied by way of stuffing or 
stopping the soles of the feet, already pared to the 
quick. 

It is universally allowed that the causes of this 
disease proceeds from too violent exercise upon 
pavement, stony ground and turnpike roads, and to 
this we may add bad shoeing, from unequal pressure 



53 

upon the horny sole, pressed between two hard bodies, 
tlie weiglit of the animal above pressing on the coiRn 
bone, and the horny sole below coming in contact 
with pressure from the stones, and then permitting th© 
horse to stand on snow, and to go into cold water. It 
also often occurs after riding through snow for some^ 
time, and then bringing the animal into a warm 
stable : the small capillary vessels of the feet are (juite 
unable to bear this change, and tbe feet cons quent- 
ly fall into a state of inflammation. It, I believe, also 
frequently occurs from the inju<!icious mo 'C of suf- 
fering horses to eat and di'ink too much when warm.* 

* It has been a g'enerally received opinion among" velerlnarp 
practitioners in England, that neither food nor water, giv.ng" in im* 
propt-r qualities and at improper times, had the influence of being, 
the sole cause of this disease- And I do not hesitate to confess 
that I have for many years been of the same opinion. But 
from several conversations which I have had on this subject 
with Mr J. Tomlinson of the Lancaster line, whose opinions and 
judgment respecting horses, their general treatment, diseases, &c, 
I very highly estimate, I must candidly confv ss, that I have on se- 
rious reflection, seen cause to value his arguments, which have, 
came so home, as to cause me to reflect and seriously to investi^-ate 
the subject, and endeavour to ascertain if possible, whether disten- 
sion of the stomach from over feeding, or a sudden check from to© 
large a quantity of cold water thrown into tlje atomach while hot, 
could have the power of suddenly diecking a return of the circula* 
tion in the lacteal system, and thereby also preventing a return of 
the circulation through the capillary vessels of the feet, could - 
have a tendency to heighten considerably the disease by tyr^.- 



&4b 

All these causes are more powerful when a horse is 
plethoric or in full habit of body, and not accustom- 
ed to his regular exercise. 

fever or inflammation this stoppage naturally produces in the la» 
miiisc of the foot. 

If this should be the case, the only rational way which T can ac- 
count for it, is this t the whole contents of the abdomen of the 
horse, but more particularly the stomach and colon, is very powtr- 
fully supplied with lacteals and lymphatics, wi^ich we find on 
dissecting, to be long- slender pipes, surrounding in every direction 
the intestines, cireuUiting' a milk white fluid, distended with chyle 
or lymph. They are in some parts to be found as large as commoa 
goose q'lills, at the same time there are many not larger than the 
smallest arteries in the body, of course any thing pressing upon 
them, as when the stomach a^d colon are distended with food and 
water, it must of course impede the circulation, and thereby stop- 
ping the return of the blood from the feet cause the smaller ves- 
sels surrounding the laminae and sensible sole to distend and some- 
times to burst. The same extremities of t e lacteals have likewise 
a conimunicalion with the capillary arteries of the guts, the lac- 
teal veins also have valves at several distances, which stop the re- 
turn of the blood from the intestines and the extremities, conse- 
quently, why may not distensiun of the stomach from either 
food or water, have the p(;Wtrr of stopping the return of the circu- 
lation, through the capillary vessels of the feet, and if so, it can easi- 
ly be accounted for why food and water improperly or imprudently 
given may not have the influence of greatly accelerating the dis« 
ease cailed founder (at the same time, I say that founder originates 
from various other causes, more than the latter) as a further cor- 
Toboration however, of tht probability of the above statement, IwiB 
mert- ly state some other circumstances of analogy in other diseases, 
%bere it is well known that distension of t)ie stomach has thi& e^ 



65 

Prom what has already been said respecting this 
disiase, it is evident that the circulation is increa- 
sed and the blood chiefly determined to the fore feet, 
attended with symptoms of violent pain and inflam- 
mation. 

feet. We all know that gout in the human subject causes a pain in 
the great toe ; but gout is a disease of the stomach, arising from 
indigestion, when that organ is improperly distended with roast 
beef, wine, &c. We also know that sleepy staggers, mad stag- 
gers and stomach staggers are all yjrodiiced from nearly the same 
cause, which by stopping a return of blood from the brain, causes 
vertigo, delii-ium, madness, &c. from the several capillary vessels 
of the brain being obstructed. I therefore say, that if his obstruc- 
tion has the power of distending and causing rupture of these small 
vessels of the brain, why should it not, by the same parity of reason- 
ing, be as likely to have the same effect on 07ie extremity as the otherf- 
and if so, I must of course become a convert to Mr. Tomiinson*s 
©pillion Mr. Tomlinson, it is true, is not a regularly bred veterina- 
rian, nevertheless, if he or any other man, from a long course of expe- 
rience and observation among horses, can advance an argument suf- 
ficienily demonstrative of the probability that food and water has 
this effect in the horse, it is my duty to stand ope n lo conviction 
and acknowledge the position correct It has however, been accu- 
rately ascertained by an experiment tried by professor Coleman, 
during my residence at the college, that liquids do become absorbed 
hy the deeper seated absorbents of the intestines. 

On or about the first of April, 1814, a condemned animal was kept 
three days without water, at the d d of which time, three paiL of 
ink water was prepared and given to the horse, and he drank nearly 
the whole of it, the horse was killed ten minutes after he had drank 
it, and on examination it was found that the coloured liquid could 
be traced though all parts of th« system. 

J.C.V.S, 



60 



THE CURE, 

Therefore, must be commenced by diminishing the 
circulation, giving slabs internally, with glisters and 
an opening diet, together with the following emollient 
poultices: 

Linseed pulverised, - - 10 ounces, 

Meal or flower, - - 15 ounces. 

Mixed up with vinegar. 

Or a poultice made of mashed potatoes with some 
linseed meal moistened with vinegar, I have found to 
be attended with very beneficial effects. They are to be 
applied warm all round the hoofs, to soften and keep up 
an equal perspiration, but by no means to resort to 
that abominable practice of paring the sole and frog 
to that excess so frequently had recourse to ; to pare 
away the hardened surface of the sole in order that 
the poultice may have the desired effect, by increasing 
the perspiration through the pores is all that is neces- 
sary. In all violent inflamr.ationsof this nature, whe- 
ther from this or any other cause, nothing more con* 
tributes to give relief than foeaf bfeeding from the 
cannon or meticarpal vein which runs down on each 
side of the pastern joint, or scarifying the lateral carti- 
lages deeply in their whole extent, and putting the foot 
©p feet in warm water, diluted either with vinegar, 
sugar of lead, or sal amnsoniac ; and a mild blister 
rubbed round the coronet, 1 have found in ail desperate 
eases attended with the most heueiicial effect. 



57 

There is however, a species of founder, which so 
far as relates to the time occupied in its approach and 
^evelopement, holds a sort of mean hetween acute 
and that chronic inflammation which sometimes proves 
fatal in a day or two, and which always accompanies 
more or less contraction of the heels or quarters ; this 
kind of founder is from its nature incurable, as it is 
not, as professors Coleman and Peal observe, in the 
power of art to restore it to its original elasticity, 
parts which have become converted into bone. Mr. 
Bracy Clark, however, in corroboration of this, has 
shown us, what was not so much as suspected before 
his profound investigation of this interesting and in- 
tricate subject was made public by his experiment!, 
and that is, that the coffin bone itself in consequence 
of its imprisonment within the hoof, undergoes a ma- 
terial alteration i^ its structure, though those igno- 
l^ant of the anatomy of the foot, would never have sus- 
pected this, for want of a knowledge of the difference of 
structure in a natural coffin bone, and one that has suf- 
red from contraction. Now, let any one go on the com- 
mons and pick out two feet, the one shall be the foot 
of a colt whose habits and work till ten or twelve 
years, has been chiefly in the country, the other shall 
be that of a horse whose work and labours have been 
conflned to the city and turnpike roads, macerate the 
two feet and examine the difference of structure. 

I have in my possession several of these bones, 
which may be examined at any time, and by any one 



58 



I 



desirous of investigating the fact, to eonvince tlicin- 
selves how erroneous those ideas formerly were on 
this subject ; a visit for that purpose would amply re- 
ward their trouble. 

A representation of these bones, and their difference 
of structure, will sufficiently exhibit the cause of our 
want of success in restoring the feet by sending out 
horses to the meadows with a view of opening their 
heels 5 and the great change that shoeing produces. 

The general figure that these bones exhibit, will 
show how materially they have suffered, the organi- 
zation of its surface being almost perfectly obliterated; 
the sides of the bone, from a wide crescent, have now 
by the powers of absorption, become oval, or of a pa- 
rabolic figure, and from partially sloping have be- 
come nearly upright ; tliis exquisitely beautiful con- 
figuration, has been termed by Mr. B. Clark during 
his ten years experiments to ascertain these facts, the 
patiloba, which exhibits all round the bone a beauti* 
ful collection of ragged cells and cavities, for the ad- 
mission of veins, arteries, nerves, &c. 

People in general may not, but physiologists well 
know there can be no regeneration or restoration of 
parts so altered. 

It is the absorption of this beautiful structure, that 
causes the bone t« become too small for the whole of 



S9 

tiie cavity of the hoof; the hoof therefore being com- 
posed of horn and not of bone, expands and becomes 
too large for the altered bone within, and the horse 
when brought up from the meadows and put to 
work becomes pomme convex footed, by some termed 
foundered. But notwithstanding that some feet do 
expand on being turned out to grass, yet we find that 
such feet soon begin to contract again when the horse 
is brought back into the stable ; which circurastamce 
depends partly on the previous disposition to contrac- 
tion, which the use of the shoe has induced on the 
living parts within the hoof, and partly upon the dry- 
ing and shrinking, which takes place in the horn, and 
the consequent loss of elasticity at the quarters. 

Since it is therefore proved, that the coffin bone 
does undergo a sensible diminution in its size and 
alteration in its structure, from this power alone, we 
ought, as Mr. Clarke and professor Peal observe, to 
be the less surprised at the change that takes place iit 
the soft and elastic parts within the hoof, from the 
operation of the same cause. Having therefore in- 
sisted upon the advantages that will result from 
keeping the feet immersed in the bath, it may natu- 
rally be expected that I should give some direc- 
tion about paring and preparing the feet when a long 
run of grass is determined on, either for the purpose 
of restoring the feet or b^^nefiting the general consti- 
tution of the auimai* In these respects I trust i bare 



60 

sufficiently explained myself in my first publication 
on shoeing; I will however add (and I cannot say more 
if I were to write till doomsday, than repeat the text, 
of my worthy professor Coleman, wlien he lectures 
on the foot of the horse) the whole is combined in four 
words, genthmen ghe the frog pressure, I tlierefore 
repeat that when the frog becomes decreased, restore 
it to health by the application of the mel ^Mgifptia- 
eiim, and give partial pressure till you get it into 
that state ; and when so, and the frog has grown of 
sufficient size to come in contact with the ground, 
and on a level bearing with the shoe, the more pressure 
you give it, the less you will find it inclined to disease. 
For experience, which after all, could alone decide 
the truth or falsehood of our speculative opinions, has 
long since, by the experiments made by Mr. B. Clark, 
convinced us that no decisive or permanent advantage 
is to be obtained from the practice in any case where 
the animal has been shod and driven on pavement for 
any considerable length of time, and we are now 
convinced from dear bought experience, reluctantly 
to add testimony of its beingfrequently productive of 
infinite mischief, as well from wliat has been before 
stated by inducing fresh derangement of the living 
parts, which did not exist in such feet before they 
were placed in their new predicament. 

But lest it may be supposed, that I reprobate alto- 
getUer the plan of turning horses out to grass with* 



61 

out shoes on, I admit with many other of nay col- 
leagues, that it may be had recourse to occasioiialiy 
with advantage, when it is intended to keep them out 
for a few days or a few weeks only ; and even in this 
case, provided horses are turned into low and swampy 
ground, it is douhtful whether it would not upon the 
whole be more wise to let the shoes remain on, provided 
care be taken to remove tliem often enough to prevent 
their getting into the interior edge of the crust. If how- 
ever, the popular opinion and prejudice which exists 
on this point, cannot be removed, would it not be 
well to refrain from having them shod for a week 
or ten days after their return to the stable, which 
might be the means of mitigating the evils which 
too commonly result from the ordinary practice. 

In my former work on shoeing, I noticed that 
tshoeing, let it be practised on whatever principle 
it may, is sure, sooner or later to produce an evil. la 
consequence of fixing an unelastic piece of ii-on to 
an elastic piece of horn, a circumstance whiclj sim- 
ple as it may appear never perhaps occurred to many, 
though dealing in horses all their lives. It should be 
understood that the foot of the horse in a state of na- 
ture never comes to its proper growth or size until 
the end of the fifth year, it then becomes a perfect 



6S 

circle, and as broad from heel to heel as from heel 
to toe. 

Whereas, in England (though there the practice of 
latp years is now much do«ie away) and particularly 
in this country, horses are put to work and shod at 
three, and sometimes before three years of age ; by 
wliich means many diseases in many shapes are 
brought on, long before the fooi; has attained its per- 
fect shape and symmetry: it is in consequence of 
this absurd practice tliat thousands and tens of thou- 
sands of horses in this country are ruined, or render- 
ed use'iess to their owners long before they have ar- 
rived at one third the period of existence assign- 
ed them by Providence. It is however, with some 
satisfaction, I am in this place able to ohserve,^ that a 
more politic system has for some years began to pre- 
vail among the more enlightened in England, who va- 
lue their horses, and who now do not shoe them until 
the fifth year, but use them with tips only, until that 
period ; this principle I have endeavoured to inculcate 
as much as possible, but people immediately cry out, 
<^0, that may do very well in England, but it will not 
do in tb.ls country upon turnpike roads, &c." People 
unwilling to see will always keep their eyes shut, and 
people unwill:<ig to listen and learn are always 
inclined tx> deafness. Let me now ask those people 
who reason thus, how is tliis done in many parts 
of the world, but more particularly in India^ 



63 

where the country is principally cooiposed of rock, 
where shoes are never known ; and as a farther corro- 
boration of this truth, it is a well iinown fact, that 
before the Cape of Good Hope fell into the hands of 
the British, shoes were entirely unknown : and where 
can we find a eonntry more rocky or mountainous 
than that part of t!)e world. This circumstance I my- 
self ascertained from many of the most wealthy in- 
habitants of the Cape, when it was given up to the 
British in 1802, on my return from India. Being anx- 
ious to prove this, as it is a circumstance of import- 
ance, though doubted by many, I can if necessary, 
produce gentlemen residing in this city, who for many 
years have carried horses to the West Indies, who 
have informed me that many of them carried to those 
islands from this country, have after a short period of 
time acquired such a hardness of hoof, as to render 
shoeing entirely unnecessary. 

The grand secret lays here, and I wish to be under- 
stood that I do not mean that horses under all circum- 
stances, are to go entirely without shoes, but only as 
circumstances will admit ; or that tips be applied at 
the toe instead of shoes, until the foot has arrived at 
its proper growth : for instance horses worked on the 
Jersey sands do not stand so much in need of shoes 
as those horses used in the city, nor do hoises at 
cart or plough in the country need shoes so much as 



6-i 

those working ill the city or on turnpike roads.* AU 
that I contend for is tiiis, and that I will maintain, 
that if all horses were left to run at large in the fields 
until five years old, (or shod with tips only, if worked 
before that period,) and the knife entirely abolished 
and the rasp only used until that period, the foot 
might in nine cases out of ten, be kept without con- 
i. action until at least one third the natural period of 
their lives (say twenty four years) instead of which nine 
horses out of ten are contracted and rendered almost 
useless before they have attained their tenth year. 
There is however, one argument to be taken into con- 
sideration to reconcile (his reasoning, and that is, that 
a foot in a state of nature never wants cutting, be- 
cause nature performing her own work, throws off 
ull guperfluGus parts by a natural exfoliation: there- 
fore if you never cut, but use the rasp instead of a 
knife, you thereby assist nature, in performing her 
own work, whereas hy the cutting you alter nature, 
and (hereby disease her ; by cutting you also invite 
the growth of horn, which a rasp round the edges 
would not do. The most plausible reason for cutting 
instead of using the rasp, is this, that from the de-^ 
fence afforded by the shoe, the parts of the hoof are 
growing, and having no means oi' wearing away it 

♦ It is also well known that the British j^overnment, as well as 
ihe India company are now raising regiments of eavalry, with 
tips odIv. 



65 

must be removed before llie shbe be applied again* 
The sole being held firm b;v' the nails eiijhraoing the 
wall, its flakes have not the opportunity ol:*discliarsi;ing 
themselves, and will also want removing with the 
knife ;the sole thickens under these artificial circum- 
stances and the frog of course, say tlie smiths, should 
undergo the same discipline in being pared, with 
the other parts ; and this reasoning, before late 
experiments taught us better, has met with an 
acquiescence from the commencement of the shoe- 
ing art, perhaps even to this day. The projecting 
solid appearance of the frog, its consistence re- 
sembling that of leather or hard cheese, cutting 
with a smooth and polished surface, invites the knife^ 
and causes it to be more sliced by the smith on that 
account than it otherwise would be ; and the smith 
as well as people in general arrogating to themselves 
a superior knowledge to the Almighty, fashion it 
to the conception they have formed in their own mind> 
of the figure it should receive ; whereas if people 
would only be contented to follow and imitate nature ^.^i 
as near as possible, they would seldom ein* so often as 
they do. As respects the wall of the hoof, it should be 
remarked, that where there is a demand for its wear 
it grows as rapidly as when in a state of nature, and 
exi>osed to the ground ; but when shod, it looses this 
power to so great a degree, that in many horses a few 
thin slic s only can be removed, and the frog being of 
slewer growth thaii the wall, and the heels clesin^ 



66 

from the compression, its circulation and health is af- 
fected, and the faihire of its growth and that ragged 
oblong figure we so often see in contracted feet are 
the necessary consequences. Let us now see what 
those rags are? and how they are formed, and we 
shall then in truth see whether cutting of the frog 
is necessary or not. That there are no rags or scales 
on a natural frog in a sound heathy state, is evident, 
and so it is almost always found to be in frogs at the 
eommeneement of shoeing, if the animal has been left 
to run until, or near the time that nature intended for 
its devciopcment But if a slice only is once taken 
away from this part at this time, and its exterior 
coat removed, and the interior one exposed, it being 
*if a more moist succulent nature, quickly dries in 
the air and lieat of the stable, ^c, and contracting 
eracks their edges, in drying, reflect or turn back and 
create a ragged uneven appearance, this being also 
removed by anotlier deeper incision, getting nearer 
and nearer to the quick (or sensible frog underneath) 
ut each cutting, till the frog flayed and diminished ia 
its size, becomes so driy, brittle and hard, as to ren- 
der it too tender to come ia contact with hai'd bodies 5 
and by this imprudent obstinacy of smiths in general, 
they by a few cuts of their abominable buttrass, in a 
few minutes, do more mischief than nature caa repair 
m as many months. 



6r 

There are however, at times exfoliations of the 
frog which take place, but this is only an effoit of 
nature to rid herself of its superfluous growth j 
Indeed it has for many years of late been the 
wish of professor Coleman and Bracy Clark, to 
bring that part of their studies and experiments 
before the public, as gives me this opportunity 
of laying before the public, a general view of 
those things, as being the most useful sort of ad- 
dition to the stock of knowledge we are in possession 
of, and which wiJl account to many for the frequent 
claims I have already made to the views or the dis- 
covery of new objects, when 1 made my attempt in 
introducing a new system of shoeing in this city. It 
will however, no doubt soon be seen, how far I wa» 
correct, and how far it will yet stand the test of in- 
quiry, which cannot but prove of public utility by 
improving a knowledge of this branch of the shoeing 
art, so much wanting improvement ; although I am a 
considerable sufferer by this attempt, it is yet to be 
hoprd that time \ull lead to a better treatment of th« 
biped as well as the quadruped. 



PROPOSALS 

FOR THE 

ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERINARY FORGES, 

FOR IMPROVING THE SHOEING ART 
IN THETJiriTED STATES, 

ON PROFESSOR COLEMAN'S SYSTEM, 

AS KOW ESTABLISHEU AT THE 

ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE OF LONDON, 

And at the different Teterinary colleges of England, 
Ireland, Scotland, France^ Germany, Spain, Portu- 
gal, Russia, and Briti$h India, 
An establishment of tliis kind not being generally 
known to be of such public utility, or national im- 
portance, as it really is, the author of these propo- 
sals conceives that a short statement of its views, and 
objects may be an acceptable offering to those unac- 
quainted with it. The extreme ignorance and incompe- 
tency of the greater part of practitioners on the dis- 
eases of horses, and the many formTdable diseases^ 
which destroy or render useless so many of these 
noble animals in ail our public cities, long before the 
end of one third of the natural period of existence as- 
signed them by Providence, induces the autlior re- 
spectlully to invite the different agricultural societies 
©f the union, or any respectable body of men, to form 
ibemselves in a society for the establishment ©f forges 



69 

and for the improvement of this branch of the reteri- 
iiary science , and to provide smitlis to be men of 
respectable characters and good workmen, for carry- 
ing the same into effect, in conjunction, with a scicn- 
tific practitioner of the veterinary art, under whose 
direction and controul this establishment shall b* 
conducted. 

The grand object of establishing these forges, is not 
only to cure and prevent corns, thrushes, canker, 
founder and contraction, (five of the most formidable 
diseases to which the foot of the horse is subject,) but 
also to introduce and disseminate the true princi- 
ples and practice of the shoeing art, and to open 
a school of instruction, to which eiiy and country 
smiths from all parts of the United States, will 
be invited to attend, and receive private lectures, 
on the anatomy, economy and functions of the foot of 
the horse ; by which means this useful and domestic 
branch of science, may gradually become dispersed 
throughout the union. Medical students also will be 
invited to render themselves useful in the neighbour- 
hood where they reside, by receiving instruction in the 
anatomy and physiology of the horse, and by learning 
how to perform operations and to administer medi- 
cines, where no regular and scientific aid can be pro.-, 
cured . Sensible of the advantages which may be made 
to result by their obtaining a knowledge of compara- 
Mve anatomy in this way, the young student may witk- 



•ut disparagement to his profession, be hereby ren- 
dering a useful piece of service to himself and his 
country ; we may then hope to see that these things 
will be in a fair way of reformation altogether ; and 
that cloud of ignorance whi(*Ji has so long obscured 
and stigmatized the practice of the profession in this 
part of the world, wil' gradually be dispelled; and 
that in a few years there will not be a city, town or coun- 
try village in tkie United States, but will boast of a prac- 
titioner, whose abilities may do hoiiour to his profession. 
Such an establishment lias been the means of saving 
many thousand fine horses in the British cavalry, and 
might be commenced on a small scale, and at a small 
expense : the patronage of the public will be neces- 
sary to carry it into full pffcct. lireat and unremitting 
exertions it is to be hoped will be made by every one 
who sets a value on his horse er his dog, whether for 
pleasure or as objects of commercial concern and do- 
mestic importance, and by tliose, who froju pa- 
triotic motives are zealous to promote the prosperi- 
ty and welfare of their country. It must also be taken 
into consideration, that a veterinary establishment of 
this nature may be supposed to clash with the preju- 
dices as well as the interests of the smiths, grooms 
and coachmen, who are most likely to think the es- 
teblishment an infringement on their rights; conse- 
quently they will endeavour to frustrate its execution. 
The opposition of such men was the principal cause of 
the failure of an attempt to form such an establish- 
meut in this city. 



71 

Cities, country towns and Tillages and proprietors 
of mi'il and stage coach estahlishments, will find 
an object of great commercial, as well as domes- 
tic importance, to procure smiths, who will receive 
instruction and establish themselves on their dif- 
ferent lines. In a political point of view, also, this 
establishment may hepome of great importance, 
which must be sufficiently manifest ,• so fully of late, 
was the utility of it estimated by the government of 
Great Britain, in their military and mail departments, 
that an annual grant of fifteen thousand pounds step- 
ling, has been voted for the support of the veterinary 
college, and for the education of youth in the shoeing 
art. Proprietors of such establishments will therefor© 
find it their interest to transmit their proposals to 
Dr. Carver. Happy for the profession itself, and 
much more happy for the community at large, if this 
object could be effected ; and it is hoped that the time 
is not far distant, when it may be honoured by a le- 
gislative consideration, and that the present genera- 
tion, may see the practice rescued from the igno- 
rance and barbarity, by which it has so long dis^^ra- 
ced this part of the world. Any number of gentle- 
men, therefore, in any of the public cities of the union, 
who may feel desirous of stepping foward to sanctiou 
and carry this plan into full elfect. will on application 
to Dr, (Carver receive any sei'vices that may be in 
his power. Smiths and others desirous of receiving 



■'^ 



7S 

instruction, will of course apply to the controuling 
committee, when such shall be established, for an in- 
troduction to Dr. Carver, and who on receiving the 
same according to such rules and regulations, as may 
be hereafter suggested by them, and the veterinary 
surgeon, shall be supplied with models of all the 
college patcntshoes, hammers, counter sink nails, 
punches, fullers, instruments and drawing knives. 
Gentlemen travelling through the United States, and 
who are subscribers to this plan, and raay be desirous 
of giving encouragement to an establishment for dis- 
seminating this useful and necessary branch of know- 
ledge, will be entitled to a set of the model patent 
ihoes, with instructions from Dr. Carver for their 
uses and application. 

Country smiths, and other respectable young men 
desirous of entering on this branch of the veterina- 
rian art as well as to Searn the surgical and operative 
parts of the profession, may find it an object well 
worthy their own interests to qualify themselves. 



SUBJECTS 

WHICH WILL BE TAUGHT AND DEMONSTRATElJ 

TO EVEUY SMITH, 

ON RECEIVING INSTRUCTION, 
*ir rilE J^EW VETERlXJlUr FORGE, 

1. An introduetorj lecture giving a general view 
of the nature of the shoeing art. 

2. The views commonty entertained of the shoeing 
art, and causes of its defects hy vavious characters, 
supposed to Jiave a knowledge of these things. 

S. Ueasonings founded on tlse natural foot, but 
which are irrelevant on the foot being shod. 

4. Various principles of shoeing, as they arc called, 
examined. Good and bad shoeing pointed out. 

5. One principle only — to follow nature as near as 
can : that defined and .how to be obtained. 

6. Fitting shoes and driving nails, discretional cir- 
cumstances only, pointed out. 



74 

7. Tlie difference of the foot after shoeing ohserv- 
cd, with a scries of nine years experiments for ac- 
curately ascertaining the effects of the shoe after be- 
ing shod, by B. Clark, F. L. S. and Y. S. 

8. A variety of different experiments on the foot of 
the living horse, explained during my residence at 
^he college. 

5. A description of the foot and hoof of the horse, 
in Avhich tlieir true nature is endeavoured to be estab- 
lished, (not merely as a defence for the foot, but as a 
non-resisting machinery for the exertions of the ani- 
mal and repose of the weight,) pointed out and ex- 
plained. 

10. Of the heels : apparent offices of the heels as 
elastic beds for the weight of the animal, explained 
and pointed out. 

11. The extraordinary state of the foal's foot, 
wliich does not obtain its full developement until the 
fifth year, explained and pointed out. 

12. How the weight is received and distributc^i 
over the basis of the foot exhibited, explained and 
pointed out. 

13. Wall of the foot described ; its curious termi- 



75 

iialioii in the centre of the foot, explained and pointed 
out by dissection. The bars as elastic processes also 
defined. 

14. Of the frogj how a space in the foot is provided 
for it by nature, as the elastic liey-stone of the foot, 
demonstrated by dissection. Also the cleft of the frog 
and the frog stay described. 

15. Cushion of tlie frog and its uses described and 
demonstrated by dissection, 

16. An extraordinary and hitherto undeseribed 
part, the conoary frog band, pointed out by dissection. 

17. The frog stay described by dissection ; the rup- 
ture of that organ described and pointed out as the 
real cause of running thrush, by B. Clark, V. S. 

18. The frog shown to possess the power of main- 
taining its own figure ; and the curious doctrine of 
shoeing smiths in this respect, pointed out. 

19. Their reasons for cutting the frog explained? 
and the remarkable interruption to the growth of 
it from that cause, pointed out. 

20. How ascertained ; its causes suggested, and the 
cutting of it unnecessary, nearly in all cases. The 



76 

tVcqucnt cause of ragged frogs pointed out. The 
natural full grown frog, never ragged if never cut, 
pointed out. 

21. The singular eifect of slioeingon the frog de- 
scribed, with its natural exfoliations considered and 
explained. 

22. T!ie different degrees of pressure tJie frog 
ought to receive when in healthy aud when in a state 
of disease, pointed out. 

23. The solc^ its singular mechanism exhibited by 
dissection. 

2i. Tliiekens by sljoeing, and the wall also retard- 
ed and disturbed in its growth bj shoeing, explained. 

25. The horny and sensible laniinfe described by 
dissection. Five hundred of the former surrounding 
the anterior surface of I'ic wall, with five hundred f 
iliG latter plates of horn surrounding the posterior 
5»uri*ace of the eoHiu bone, and coming in contact with 
each othui', is shown to support the w hole weight of 
the animal, proved by experiments at the veterinary 



O' 



26. Tlic bearings of (he natural hoof on the 
ground; its natural exfoliations, &c. pointed out; 
Us^ natural fonu at ilve years old, as broad from heel 



77 

to heel as from heel to toe, also explained ; never of 
an oblong; form in a state of nature. 

27. On standing in the stable ; how it proves the 
entire destruction of the foot for want of proper sta- 
ble treatment and management. 

28. On shoeing — on neat shoeing — on levelling the 
toe — on expanding of feet ; how to be obt'<;ined — to- 
gether with a closer examination of the nature of 
these things pointed out and explained — how and why 
the shoeing art has for so many ages been involved 
in a cloud of darkness. With conclusions how this 
branch of the veterinary art may be drawn from con- 
tempt to respectability. 



®; %' 



CONCLUSIOI^. 

All f believe, that can now be added upon this im- 
portant subjeet is, that while the abominable system 
of shoeing, now in use among tlie smiths of this city, 
shall continue, aud while they are able by their com- 
binations to frustrate every attempt to introduce new 
principles, and lessen the sufferings of this faitli- 
i'ui slave to our labours and pleasure, it will be useless 
for any further attempts to be made ; for it must now 
be evident from what has been premised, that it is 
from t he practice of bad shoeing, now so obstinately 
persisted in, that all the diseases here mentioned', 
particularly contracted fee(, originate. Indeed, when 
we cojisider and coinpare the important functions of 
die foot of tije living horse, with the delicacy of the 
parts as described widiin the hoof ; and if we at the 
same time subjoin the education of those to whom 
custom unfortunately has hitherto committed the pre- 
iervatjoa of this important organ, it will create no 
surprise, to see so many disi?ascd and lame horses in 
all the public cities of our union, actually owing to 
the ignorance and depravity of those rustic vuicans 
the generality of whom have never read their horn 
book, iv;norant even of the first principles of their art, 
unwilii' g br pit to the trouble of learning, or to 
Uie mortification of owuing that they need it, obst? 



79 

nateiy maintaining their own opinions, whereas theiF 
candidly pleading ignorance, would on the contrary 
ennoble them. But no, they cut into a horse's foot, as 
a carpenter does a piece of wood ; and mstead of fur^ 
nishing additional strength, and rendering the foot 
capable of resisting the hardest bodies, by taking 
away no more than is necessary or as much as nature 
intended should exfoliate, and which she so wisely al- 
ways leaves her mark to go by, they destroy with 
their destructive buttrass, those very parts which na- 
ture formed and designed for that wise and important 
end ; therefore, it is an easy task to prove in defiance 
of all they can advance, that they do not only coun*- 
teract the intentions of nature, but as 1 before obsei> 
ved, produce diseases, instead of preventing them». 

We shall now conclude our present remarks, thait 
horses by thousands in the United States are annually 
destroyed by the above destructive mode of shoeing, 
and with circumstances of shameful barbarity, by er- 
ror produced upon error, and which custom has ren- 
dered too familiar for us to see in its true enormity 5 
and whole centuries have blindly passed away, in 
which those errors liave not been perceived, in an ig- 
norant and thoughtless acquiescence with them; and 
in this wretched state, often are they seen severely 
punished and abused, even when they have done tKeir 
utmost labour, because they cannot do more : and the 
laws which maintain the most trifling rights of meflp. 



so 

in respect to personal safety, have provided no pro- 
tection to these innocent and often beneficial slaves, 
from ill usage however gross and unmerited. And 
much of this ill usage eomes from the ill ten>per and 
savage disposition, of the half drunken people usually 
employed about them, who have neither patience nor 
feeling, for the failing their miserable condition 
brings upon them. It seems also a monstrosity of in- 
justice, that after the use of his feet has been taken 
from him, he should be abused because he cannot go, 
especially when we recollect his willingness on all oc- 
casions to i xert his strength and power for us by the 
slightest intimation of our wishes, even to the extinc- 
tion of life itself; and contributing as he most wil- 
lingly does, to the benefits of every class of society, 
the pomp of the great, the interests and pleasures of 
the middle ranks, and the wants of the poor, not de- 
serving such a return It is now only necessary to add, 
that in corroboration of all I have here said to 
strengthen the belief that contraction is not only to be 
prevented and warded off even to old age, but that 
it is even when very far advanced, capable of being 
mitigated so as to render the animal useful to double 
and treble the period he usually is, and if this asser- 
tion is a fact, I say it is a discovery of great magnitude 
and economy to the owners of every animal so afflicted. 
When I first commenced this subject on contraction, I 
informed my readers that professor Coleman com men-- 
ced his career at the veterinary college of London by 
teaching the mode of curing and preventing some of 



81 

the most formidable diseases incident to the foot of 
the liorse. And I am liappj^ in saying that he lias am- 
ply completed his researches, and that hundreds and 
even thousands of horses have been and are now saved 
to the British army in this complaint. The last re- 
turns to parliament, proved a saving of one hundred 
and twenty horses in every regfment of cavalry, annu- 
ally : therefore, by the use of the patent bar shoe, 
which answers all the purposes of an artificial frog, 
when properly applied, and the simple immersion of 
the feet in a water bath for two or three hours every 
day, or every other day, as occasions and weather per- 
mit, our ends are obtained. By (his method the nourish- 
ment natural to the hoof, Ims free access to the suf- 
fice, and by these simple means only in conjunction 
with the preservation of the bars and binders, and 
never touching the frog in shoeing, are a number of 
diseases of the feet to be both cured and prevented.*^ 

* Befo'C I left England I myself saw several hundred young" hor- 
ges then Tui&ing by the government and the honou. able East India 
company, at their stud in HurtfordsLire, under the exp rience and 
guidance of Mr. Bloxham and Mr Field, veterinary surg ons to the 
first and second segiments of horse guards, where the happiest re- 
sults are experienced from this mode of raising horses without 
shoes, until thei. fifth or sixth year, by abolishing the knife, and 
using the riisp and tip only. It sliould also be remembered that 
whtn you once begin to cut a colls foot you invite the growth of 
horn, and theieby commence an evil you must of necessity go 
on with, but if you have not used \\-.e buttrass, you leave nature to 
I'^i elf, and she wisely does he- own work by throwing off all ex- 
traneous substance of the frog and hoof by a natural exfoliation^ 



RECAPITULATION 

OF THE 

TREATMENT AND CURE OF CONTRACTION, FOUNDER 
AND RUNNING THRUSH. 

If a person own a young liorse four or five years of 
age, having perfect feet, let him be careful of preser- 
ving the frog, bars and binders, keeping the frog on a 
level with the shoe, consequently always in contact 
with pressure, the heels are constantly expanding, 
and neither contraction nor thrush ever takes place : 
but the moment you deviate from tliis rule, either by 
raising tlie frog from pressure, or cutting the frog, 
bars and binders, from that moment the functions of 
nature are altered and disease commences her ravages. 

If however, you have a horse seven, eight or ten 
years of age, and the heels fi-om bad shoeing are 
high and contracted, commence by cutting them 
down to about two or two and a half inches, rasp the 
quarters, and if the frog then comes on a level Mith 
the horn, apply the clip thin heel shoe ; but if the frog 
even after cutting still remains too elevated to come 
in contact with pressure, apply the bar shoe, and the 
pieces of cork to make it do so. If tlie frog is dry and 
there is no thrush, keep it in the bath, but if not^ 



83 

keep it ilry and ^et it sound by the application of the 
college Egijptiacum before you suffer moisture to 
touch it. The expansion of the heels should be watch- 
ed at every shoeing, and the shoe widened every 
time the horse is shod, by these simple rules, and a lit- 
tle attention to the subject, in a few months thou- 
sands of horses may be saved to the United States.* 



* In corroboration of all that I have hitherto advanced on thp sub« 
ject of rasping the hee is und quarters, in conjunction with immer- 
sion in the baih, i relate the first experiment I mide duriag my 
residence at the college. 

While on a visit at Hampstead, a gentleman, a friend of my fa- 
ther's, who had purchased a very fine hunter whose feet were in a 
high state of contraction, applied to me for advice, the horse was 
about ten years of age : I commenced by rasping the heels, and at 
the quarters from the corronet to the basis, just sufficient to prevent 
drawing blood ; the button of the walls at the quarters, were cut 
down flat by the smith, as near as could be permitted : by this the 
frog which was before contracted and raised from pressure, was now 
brought to bear upon the grou' d, and to promote which, the toe 
was cut off square, as far as it would permit. This operation being 
performed, the horse was every day immersed in the bath for two 
or three hours, and without being sho ; suffered to run out at his 
pleasure on apiece of ground adjoining the stable. In about nine 
weeks from the commencement, I found that the heels had consi- 
derably expanded by the power -»f contraction, which the w--*ken- 
ing of the quarters with the rasp, had given to the bars, and which 
before were scarcely visil)le, now grown large and stfong ; the frog 
also, by being brought m contact with press u e, had by this time 
grown down, and was sufficiently large to be ne iily f)n a level with 
the heelsi which hitherto had been prevented by the contraction af 



84 

The system here laid down of cwring diseases of 
the feet, has, I am confident never been introduced 
or put in practice in this country. I shall therefore 
derive son e consolation from one reflection on the 
subject, that is, even tliough much enmity and preju- 
dice still exists among the smiths, by a determined 
perseverance in tlieir present destructive mode of 
shoeing, a considerable share of the evil, will by the 
introduction of the bath and the bar shoe, be removed ; 
and tlie rapidity of contraction >vill in most cases not 
only be considerably decreased, but the services of the 
animal prolonged for many years to their owners. 
However, like many other evils in society, it is a fact 
much easier felt and perceived than remedied, never- 
theless,! am not witliout liopes, that what 1 have 
here loosely suggested, may still be acted upon by 
gentlemen acquainted with their own interest and 
thereby determined to maintain the same prerogaiive 
in their stables as in their parlours. At the same time 
it is equally cleiir to me, that in order to lessen these 
enormous and growing eviJs, as respects the dominion 
and influence which niany gentlemen's servants have 
and do possess in their masters stables, that we have 
by no means so much to learn as to unlearn, for 

th< quarters. The horse being now fit to be rode, he was Bbod 
with professor Coleman's patent clip shoe, which soon brought tlie 
frogo a level with the hoc ; an.J when I left England, ti.is horse 
haa then been hu t d !)r one season and his feet so iraproved as 
f carcely to bear credibility. 



85 

I have more than once known, tiiat merely for the 
sake of estabUshing iheir own ridiculous and perni- 
cious mode of shoeing, when I Ijave differed from 
them in opinion, they have on purpose lamed their mas- 
ter's horses and imputed the fault to the shoes, after 
I'.aving in vain tried every sort of invention and lies 
to discredit the use of them. And J repeat that until 
this -desirable change can be effected by gentlemen 
being resolved to crush the present vinciictive spirit 
of opposition and misconduct in their grooms and 
servants, when my services are called upon to render 
assistance to their afflicted animals, we never can ex- 
pect to see the veterinary art, or any branch of it 
prosper in this country. 

If on the other hand, contraction has already taken 
place with any degree of violence, and you are desi- 
rous of a cure so as to render a horse serviceable for 
years to come, you must, to succeed effi^ctually, first 
commence the operation in quite a different way, by 
giving your horse up from work, for the space often or 
fifteen days, and cutting down the foot only as far as is 
necessary (and no farther than nature has left her 
marks for your guidance and instruction.) If the frog 
in this operation comes in contact with pressure, which 
is so much the better, cut the hair oif all rouiid the 
foot lock or pastern, fron^ the pastern joint to the cor- 
ronct, and apply a mild blister, such as tlie following: 

H 



86 



Cantharides 


2 ( 


Irachnis. 


Mustard 


2| 


do. 


Venus turpentine 


- - - iJ 


ounces. 


Wax and adepts each 


1 ounce. 


Mix the whole into an 


ointment and rub in 


about an 


ounce in each foot. 







Let the blister remain on about two days and two 
nights, and on the third day grease the blister with lard, 
and immerse the toot in a bath of warm water, and apply 
the emollient poultice at night. The horse shoukl now 
have walking exercise twice a day, and when the blister 
has operated sufficiently, and the hair commences its 
removal on the part, and the horse is sufficiently well to 
bear shoeing, let him be now shod with the patent 
bar shoe* and if the rising or prominent part at the 
middle or heel of the shoe, as represented in plate 
two, figure one, should not touch the frog, supply the 
vacancy and obtain partial pressure by the applica- 
tion of pieces of cork dipped in tar, which must be in- 
troduced between the cavity of tlie shoe and frog, and 
as you observe the frog to descend, grow sound, strong 
and healthy, the more pressure you give it the better. 
The clip shoe may then be applied as his constant 
shoes, without further trouble, by the application of the 
cold bath a couple hours every day during hot and 
dry weather. 

• Plate 2, %ure 2. 



£0R THE CURE OF RUNNING THRU8H. 

All that need be said for the cure of thrush, is, to 
give the frog pressure ; if the frog is in a healtliy state 
and always in contact with pressure In being kept on 
a level with the shoe, no thrush will ever make its 
appearance. 

If however, the thrush has already commenced its 
ravages in the eleft of the frog, and the frog is much 
decayed, and there runs a foetid humour, the com- 
messures and cleft of the frog must be well washed 
and cleansed from all filth and dirt, and washed every 
day with strong brandy and water, and the following 
ointment applied. 



Mel ^Mgyptiacum, 




Pulverised verdegris 


4J drachms 


Mel 


. 2^ do. 


Vinegar 


±1 ounce. 



Or a solution of blue vitriol boiled over a gentle fire 
till it has acquired a proper consistence and red colour. 

By a few applications of this ointment, the frog 
will acquire a degree of health and hardness, when 
the college bar shoe must be applied, and the same 
pressure as before observed, till it has acquired sufli- 



88 • 

cient size, health and strength to hear tlie weight of 
the ap.imal, and when you have once got it to bear on a 
level with the shoe, the more pressure you give it the 
better. 

If however, an obstinacy to heal should be observ- 
ed, as is sometimes the case, the horse must go 
through a mild course of alterative physic, by which, 
with a little nitre in his water night and morning, or 
a few diuretic balls, a cure is generally performed. 
It may be necessary to keep in remembrance, that an 
obstinate thrush of long standing, approaching to can- 
ker, can never be cured but by internal medicine and 
bleeding. The horse should also be dieted on soft 
marsh feed and as many potatoes as he will eat. 

Respecting the cure of founder, I trust sufficient 
has been said on the subject for the guidance of a 
cure. I will however add, that in desperate cases, I 
have always been successful by the application of the 
following poultices : take of bran a quarter of a peck, 
water a sufficient quantity, boiled ten minutes, and 
then thicken it properly with linseed meal, add as 
much vinegar as you can, to give it a proper consis- 
tence, and apply this from the articulation of the 
shoulders to the feet for a couple of days, after this 
apply the mild blister from the articulation of the 
knee to the corronet, previously cutting off the hair. 
When the blister has acted about twelve hours, im- 



89 

inerse the feet in a warm bath, if you can get (he 
horse to stand | if he cannot, continue the poiilike over 
the blister. The horse should have an opening soft 
diet with an ounce of nitre, night and morning, and a 
pound of salts every two or three days, but no nitre 
on the day that salts are given. The blister mutt be 
continued and renewed every eight or ten days, and 
the warm bath and emollient poultices for a month or 
six weeks. When the horse can bear his own weight 
it will be best to turn him out, and leave his exercise 
to his OAvn free will. A diuretic ball every three or 
four days, with a few purgative alterative balls will 
be of great service to keep the bowels in a proper 
state. 

The purgative alterative balls are composed of a 
drachm and a half of aloes and two drachms of soap, 
one to be given every twelve hours till the body is 
opened. The frequent application of the blisters as 
before prescribed, will produce an external irritation 
on the parts, which may often succeed in restoring 
the legs to their natural supleness ; particularly if the 
case is recent, and the poultice be properly apj>lied eve- 
ry night from the knees down to the feet. Tliis treat- 
ment requires a great deal of perseverance and pa- 
tience, and in ij.any instances a complete cure has 
been performed by it, but never in very desperate 
cases by any other method. 
H 2 



90 

If the treatment here recommended, does not com- 
plete a cure, the disease will terminate with more or 
less dreadful effects; the play of the joints will he con- 
fined, the legs will move with difficulty, and the ani- 
mal will he lame during the remainder of his life. 
Having disclaimed the idea of writing a regular trea- 
tise on shoeing, in these essays, I shall now close the 
subject, by hoping that the cardinal maxims laid down 
in Mr. Coleman's system of shoeing, and which I 
printed in a small pamphlet some time ago, will re- 
main in full and undiminished force. They have stood 
the tfstof more than twentyyears experience, and may 
chiefly be compiled under the following heads, name- 
ly : that the frog and bars shall be scrupulously pre- 
served, and the frog always brought in contact with 
pressure if possible — that the shoe shall rest on the un- 
der edge of the crust and bars alone, and touch the sole 
at no one single point — that such portion of the sole 
as may be necessary, shall be carefully removed with a 
drawing knife, and only hollowed out sufficiently to 
allow a picker to pass all round, from the point of the 
toe to the extreme angle of the heel, where the ca- 
vity ought to be greater than at any other part — that 
there shall be no superfluous weight of iron in the 
shoe, and that the nails shall be driven as little back- 
ward in tlie quarters as is compatible with the secure 
fastening of the shoe. 

And I am perfectly satisfied, that the enforcement 
of these simple rules, and the use of the patent bar 



91 

slioe* and the cold bath, will not only be the means 
of preventing many, but mitigating and warding off 
even to old age, most of the evils which daily spring 
from that pernicious method of shoeing now prac- 
tised by the smiths in general of tliis city. 

» Plate 2 figure 2. 



TO PRITATE GENTLEMEN, 

OWNERS OP BREWERIES, 

MAIL STAGE ESTABLISHMENTS 

AND LIVERY STABLE KEEPERS, 

The following useful improvements in veterinary science is 
respecfully submitted. 

The various medical uses to which Dr. Carver's 
patent, universal, veterinary medical bath may be ap- 
plied in restorinj^ horses feet, that are constantly in 
use, and battering over the pavement of a large city, 
will render it a valuable acquisition to the public. It 
may be applied, under its various modifications, for 
all diseases of the feet, particularly contraction, 
founder, sand cracks and running thrush — to diseases 
of the skin — of the lungs — and for inflammation 
generally. For tetanus and many other disorders, both 
external and internal, to which horses and other quad- 
rupeds are liable. 

It is also recommended, as a useful introduction 
into all infirmaries and large establishments where a 
number of horses are employed, such as breweries, 
mail statije establishments, sugar houses, private and 
public stables. 



93 

To the southward, and the westward, and in the 
West Indies, in large and extensive cotton farms and 
plantations, where tetanus, and other spasmodic dis- 
orders so frequently occur among the negroes ; the 
hot and vapour both will be found extensively useful 
in saving the life of both man and beast. 

Dr. Carver however, with a view of making its 
usefulness more general in tlie breweries, private and 
public stables of the city, for the cure and prevention 
of founder and contraction, which disable so many fine 
horses in all the public cities of the United States, 
has simplified and modified his universal bath so as 
to render it less expensive, as well as to give less 
trouble to servants. 

A model of Dr. Carver's universal and modified 
bath, may be seen at his residence, and all applica- 
tions for a knowledge of its principles, and also fop 
the application of the patent bar and clip shoes, in aid 
and assistance of the cure of contraction, &c. in con- 
junction with the use of the bath, will be punctually 
attended to. 



TERMS OF CHARGES 

FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF USING 

LR. CARVER'S PATEJ^T BATH. 

For 14 years. 
For all public livery stables SlO 

For all mail stage establishments 10 

For all breweries not exceeding ten horses 5 
For private stables 5 

Note. All persons disposed to purchase patent rights for a city, 
town or f tate, will please to apply to 

J. CARVER, veterinary surgeon. 



COLLEGE CERTIFICATES. 

Vderinary College, Jultf 12, 1815. 
These are to certify that Mr. J. Carver has attend- 
ed the veterinary college as a resident pupil for three 
years, and having heen examined by us, we consider 
him as qualified to practise the veterinary art. 

Henrij Clme, surgeon, 

William BaUngtoih •^I* ^. 

Ashley Cooper, 

J, Cook, M. D. 

G, Pearson, 

Henry Clui^jr. 

Edward Coleman, prof. 

Wm, Sexvell, assist, pro, and treas. 

Theatre of Anatomy, Pbysiolog-v, Pathology and Surgery, October, 
1815. 

By Mr. Wilson, Mr. Charles Bell, and Mr. Brody, 

This is to certify that Mr. J. Carver, veterinary 
pupil under me, has attended a course of lectures on the 
• human subject and chemistry, under sir H. Davy, jr. 

Edward Coleman, presit'enf. 
William Sewell, assist, prof, 

Boyal Veterinary Medical Society, July 12, 1815. 
We hereby certify tiiat Mr. J. Carver is a mem- 
ber of the London Veterinary Medical Society, and 
that his observations have contributed to the advance- 
ment of veterinary knowledge. 
Signed by order of the Society. 

Edxvard Coleman, 
William Sewell, V. P. 
S. DuFFiELD, Secretary* 
To Mr. J. Carver. V. 8. 



The above veterinary diplomas have been examined 
and approved by the president, vice president, secre- 
tary and members of the Philadelphia Agricultural 
Society. 

R. VAUX, secretary. 



IN THE PRESS, 

AND WILL BE READY BY THE FIRST OF JULY, 

A TREATISE 

ON THE 

DISEASES OF THE EYE OF THE HORSE, 

WITH PLATES, 

TAKEN FROM ACTUAL DISSECTION 

AT THE VETERIXARr COLLEGE ; 

vShowing their causes, symptoms, prevention, best mode 
of treatment and cure. 

ALSO, 

A TREATISE 

ON THE 

LAMENESS OF HORSES, 

WITH PLATES, 

SHOWING ALL THE VARIETIES OF LAMENESS TO WHICH THE 
HORSE IS LIABLE ; 

TAKEN ALSO FiiOM ACTUAL DISSECTION 

AT THE 

VETERLX^IRF COLLEGE; 

Showing their causes, symptoms, best mode of treatment 
and cure, 

BY THE AiD AND USE OF THE 

PATEXT VETERLYARF JiEDICAL BJiTE, 

INTRODUCED ON A NEW PRINCIPLE 

BY THE AUTHOR, 



